Members, cutting across party lines, raised the issue of shortage of drinking water at the general body meeting of the Zilla Parishad held here on Tuesday.
At the end of a long discussion, Minister for Civil Supplies Prathipati Pulla Rao said the district administration had sent proposals to the tune of ₹13 crore to mitigate the crisis in the district.
With the groundwater -levels plummeting steeply, tankers would be sourced to areas in Palnadu affected by water shortage, he said.
The Minister said a request to release 7.5 tmc ft of water from the Nagarjunasagar Project Right Canal would be made to Minister for Irrigation Umamaheswara Rao on April 25.
“We will also urge Minister for Panchayat Raj and Rural Water Supply Nara Lokesh to ensure that adequate drinking water is supplied to tail-end areas. The NSP drawals are usually 5.6 tmc ft but we urge the Irrigation Minister to scale it up to 7.5 tmc ft,” Mr. Pulla Rao said. The general body also resolved to ask the RWS Department to prepare estimates to sink borewells in all the 17 Assembly constituencies in the district.
Minister for Social Welfare Nakka Ananda Babu, MLAs and District Collector Kantilal Dande were among those present.
