Committee for revival of water projects to be set up

Following complaints that 16 multi-village drinking water projects in the district were unable to supply water to the targeted villages, Minister for Rural Development and Panchayatraj H.K. Patil has directed Zilla Panchayat CEO K.B. Shivakumar to constitute a committee of expert engineers to suggest the plans to revive the project.

Chairing a review meeting on the drinking water schemes of the district here on Sunday, he said that the committee should prepare a report and submit it to the government for further action.

The matter came up for discussion when MP Ramesh Jigajinagi said that two of the schemes which were started in Indi village of the district failed to provide water because the water was drawn from the a nearly dried up lake. “Similar is the condition of many projects where crores of rupees have been spent with literally no result,” he said. Mr. Patil admitted that revision of the project was needed and asked the CEO to get the report submitted as early as possible.

Earlier, Mr. Jigajinagi also drew the attention of the Minister to the confusion prevailing over the maintenance of roads developed under Prime Minister Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY). He said that initially, it was the PWD which was developing and maintaining the roads for five years. Now, with the contract is over and the PWD has no funds for the maintenance and it has handed over the roads to the ZP.

“The ZP says that since it has no separate funds for the maintenance of the road, it is not maintaining the roads build under the scheme. Amid this, the condition of the roads is only worsening. The government should take some decision on it,” he said.

To this, Mr. Patil said that since it was the State level issue, and the decision should be taken at the government level itself, he said that a suitable decision would be taken after consultation with the Chief Minister.

District In-charge Minister M.B. Patil, MLAs Makbul Bagwan, Shivanand Patil, C.S. Nadagouda, Ramesh Bhusnur; ZP president Umesh Kolkur; Deputy Commissioner D. Randeep and officials of various departments were present.

‘A report should be submitted to the government for further action’

CEO asked to ensure the report is submitted

at the earliest

‘A report should be submitted to the government for further action’