Expressing concern that serious drinking water shortage had gripped the State at the beginning of the summer season itself, Leader of the Opposition Jagadish Shettar on Monday alleged in the Assembly that 3,979 villages from different districts were facing acute shortage of drinking water.
Initiating a debate on drinking water shortage in the State, Mr. Shettar said he had written to deputy commissioners of all the districts seeking information from them on the drinking water situation. The DCs had replied stating that 3,979 villages were in the grip of a serious drinking water shortage and that they need Rs. 184 crore to tackle the situation in these villages during summer months.
Reading out the statistics given by the DCs, he said 522 villages in Chickballapur and 348 villages in Kolar districts were among those facing drinking water shortage. Hassan accounted for 952 such villages facing shortage of drinking water while the districts of Chitradurga (481 villages), Kalaburagi (362), Ballary (283), Bengaluru Urban (169) and Yadgir (210) also accounted for big chunk of villages facing drinking water shortage, he noted.
The situation was worse in the parched districts of Old Mysore region/central parts of the State such as Kolar, Chickballapur, Bengaluru Rural, Tumkur, Chitradurga and Haveri, he said and warned the government that people of these areas may rebel and take to streets if measures were not taken immediately to provide permanent drinking water supply facility by pumping water from rivers. He expressed concern that people of these districts were in dire straits as the groundwater had almost become non-potable there, he said.
He also alleged that the government did not have clarity on important project like Yettinahole which was conceived to supply drinking water to the parched districts.
Earlier the BJP members tried to raise the issue through an adjournment motion, which has a censuring clause. However, Speaker Kagodu Thimmappa permitted discussion under a non-censuring clause.
