Drinking water scheme still a mirage

` 100 crore announced for drinking water scheme and ` 10 crore for setting up of turmeric market in the State Budget 2010-11, are not released till da

The Government so far not released money despite making provision for the same in the budget. Interestingly, the officials concerned never bothered to prepare an action plan in this regard.

The government’s failure to release the funds has made the people to lose hopes on the Yeddyurappa government. All the promises made during the by-elections to Kollegal Assembly constituency, too have not been implemented till date. The River Cauvery-the lifeline of the region, flows in the district for 110 km but still Gundlupet and Chamarajanagar taluks are still facing severe scarcity of drinking water.

In 2004-05, the district administration had prepared an action plan for the supply of drinking water to 3.83 lakh people at the cost of `  102. 95 crore to 297 villages in those two taluks. The proposal had been sent to the State government seeking release of funds under the Rajeev Gandhi Submission Project. But this project never materialised. Last year, when the district administration reworked the project, the cost of project escalated to  `  291 crore. Another fresh proposal was sent to the government. The chief minister has not given approval for the project till today. In the midst of all these developments, the CM announced ` 100 core to ease drinking water crisis in the budget for the year 2010-11. 

The announcement of  ` 10 core for the establishment of turmeric market and processing unit still is still a mirage for people. In fact, a majority of farmers of the region grow turmeric in huge quantity but they are dependent on Erode in Tamil Nadu for the marketing. With this, the Government was losing lakhs of rupees every year.

Meanwhile, District Raitha Sangha President Mahesh Prabhu demanded the State Government to release the money in the 2011-12 budget instead of making false promises.