Officials at the district level should ensure proper supply of drinking water to the people and animals and if there is scarcity, they should take steps to hire private borewells, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has said.
He was here on Friday to attend a drought review meeting.
The Chief Minister said that there was no dearth of funds for supplying water to the people and the government had released required funds to the district administration. “It is the responsibility of the zilla panchayat chief executive officer and the Deputy Commissioner to review the drought situation in the district by convening a meeting of taluk and district-level officers,” he said.
To stop migration of farm labourers in search of livelihood, the officers should provide jobs to eligible card holders and pay their wages without delay. The officers at taluk level should provide drinking water to farm labourers working in projects under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and change their working hours.
Deputy Commissioner Srirangaiah said that steps had been taken to supply drinking water to 39 villages in the district by tankers and there was no shortage of funds.
He said that 16 goshalas had been opened in the district and there were proposals to open a few more. Steps had been taken to ensure drinking water, fodder and medicines to the animals. Responding to the information provided by the Deputy Commissioner, the Chief Minister said that the State government was ready to release more funds if the district administration systematically utilised the available funds.
Earlier, the Chief Minister visited Challakere and Molkalmuru taluks to review drought relief works and interacted with farm labourers. He also instructed the district-level officers to ensure that the wages of the labourers working under MNREGA were paid within six days.
During his visit to Doddaullarthi village to inspect fodder and drinking water being supplied to animals, Mr. Siddaramaiah noticed that clean water was not stored in a tank meant for supplying water to cattle.
He suspended Animal Husbandry Department official Shivaprakash with immediate effect on the charge of dereliction of duty. Mr. Siddaramaiah instructed the Deputy Commissioner and the zilla panchayat chief executive officer to initiate strictly with those who neglect drought relief works.
Interacting with farm labourers at Hirehalli village, the Chief Minister instructed the officials at the taluk level to ensure that drinking water was supplied to people in the village regularly. In Mattigarhalli village, the Chief Minister appealed to the officers and the people to make proper use of the funds released to take up drought relief works.
H. Anjaneya, district in-charge Minister; D. Sudhakar, Raghumurthy, and Tippeswamy, MLAs; Jayamma Balraj, MLC; Srirangaiah, Deputy Commissioner; Nitesh Patil, Chitradurga Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer; Nanjundswamy, Inspector-General of Police; and M.N. Anucheth, Superintendent of Police, were present.
