Karnataka - Raichur   

Be prepared to handle water crisis in summer, district officials told

Raichur: Javed Akhtar, secretary, Department of Urban Development and in-charge Secretary of Raichur district, has directed the district administration to take steps to ensure proper handling of drinking water supply in rural and urban areas in summer.

Chairing a district-level review meeting here on Monday, he said that the available reports with him revealed that many parts in rural and urban areas in the district were expected to face severe drinking water shortage in summer. There was a need to take steps well in advance to augment drinking water supply in these areas.

He asked the district administration to sound the Revenue Department and the zilla panchayat and help prepare action plans and get approval from the Government in time to meet drinking water supply requirements in villages likely to face water shortage in summer. Secretaries in taluk and gram panchayats should coordinate in solving the problem in their respective areas.

He directed the chief executive officer of the zilla panchayat, N.V. Prasad, to identify tanks and pit-wells in the villages in the five taluks in the district to prepare plans to take up work to remove silt in lakes and tanks before summer.

All such works should be included under the National Rural Employment Generation Scheme (NREGS). He also asked him to prepare an action plan to sink borewells and repair existing ones, where required, in the identified villages.

Deputy Commissioner Adoni Syed Saleem told the meeting that the district administration had identified 146 villages in the five taluks that were likely to face drinking water shortage in summer. Of these, 26 had no water sources and had to be supplied drinking water through tankers. In addition, 14 urban and semi-urban areas required drinking water supply through tankers. The district administration required Rs. 47 lakh to supply drinking water through tankers in rural areas and another Rs. 25 lakh in urban areas. He said that the district administration had finalised a Rs. 6.59-crore action plan to supply drinking water in rural and urban areas in the district and submitted it to the Government seeking its approval and release of funds.

Ganapathi Sakre, Executive Engineer, Engineering Division of the zilla panchayat, told the meeting that the a Rs. 3.21-crore action plan had been prepared and sent to the zilla panchayat.

Mr. Akhtar told the officials that the Government had released Rs. 1 crore to the zilla panchayat to implement regular water supply schemes in the district. Of the 100 works sanctioned under the scheme, the zilla panchayat had implemented 65.

Deputy Secretary of the zilla panchayat, Annadanayya, Assistant Commissioners M. Mallayya (Raichur) and Govindareddy (Lingsugur) were present.

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