Communist Party of India (Marxist) Central Secretariat member V. Srinivasa Rao has urged the State government to address drinking water problem through micro-level solutions.
People in several villages were forced to migrate to cities and towns after selling their cattle, with the government failing to come to their rescue, said Mr. Rao, who led a fact-finding team to drought-affected mandals in Markapur, Yerragondapalem and Darsi Assembly constituencies on Sunday.
“Retaining bulls for ploughing, we have sold away 200 buffaloes and cows as we are unable to feed them,” a group of farmers told the CPI(M) leaders at Nikarampalle.
Pressing for a budgetary allocation of at least Rs. 2,000 crore for completing the Pula Subbaiah Veligonda project early to provide a permanent solution to the water woes, he said that with Rs. 150 crore being earmarked for the project, even salaries of the staff, who were implementing the project, could not be met.
The functioning of the Rural Water Supply Department should be toned up to meet the unprecedented drought, Mr. Rao said, along with party district secretary P. Anjaneyulu and State Secretariat member Jala Anjaiah.
“It is unfortunate that though the summer storage tanks at Dupadu and Chandavaram are brimming with water, all the targeted habitations are not getting water owing to a various reasons including bursting of the pipes,” he said.
Referring to the woes of people depending on Dupadu water scheme, which had been designed to cater to the people of 137 villages, Mr. Rao said water was now being supplied only to around 50 villages.
The government could resolve the problems at the grassroots level by spending about Rs. 5 to Rs. 10 crore and ensure water to all the habitations, Mr. Anjaneyulu said, adding that supply of water through tankers should only be on temporary basis. Repairing of pipelines to a distance of 3 km would do to ensure uninterrupted water supply to Pedagudipadu.
