'De-silting of lakes proposed under NREGA'

With the drinking water situation set to worsen in the coming months, steps should be taken to ensure adequate water supply.

As a measure to ensure water security, a proposal has been sent to the State government to include desilting of lakes under National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, said A G Kodgi, chairman of Third State Finance Commission Implementation Task Force here on Wednesday.

He was addressing a press meet after chairing a meeting at Mandya zilla panchayat auditorium. He said that expected progress was not made in housing and drinking water schemes.

The district has also lagged in the collection of taxes from various sources.
Despite funds being sanctioned for various Central and State government schemes, expenditure of funds was not satisfactory.

It has also come to light that several people are operating shops and other businesses without a licenses. Elected representatives too do not know that such trade licenses should be issued. Even concerned officials have failed in checking the licenses and issuing them, he said.

He complained about several shortcomings in drinking water schemes of the district. Grama panchayats have to pay bills to the tune of Rs 50,000 for water alone, but the panchayats do not have any income sources, he said.

A proposal will be sent to the State government to compulsorily install water meters to all water connections in the district.

Member of the committee T Thimmegowda said that proposal has been sent to the State government to sanction funds in proportion with the demography of the region.