Zilla Panchayat president J Premakumari urged officials to ensure sufficient drinking water and adeqaute power supply in villages.

She addressed district-level officials at a meeting in the ZP Hall here on Friday. The meeting was held to review the progress of works taken up by various departments. She said many villages in the district were not getting sufficient water supply due to the problem of insufficient supply of electricity.

Premakumari urged officials of the Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Corporation (CESC) to ensure adequate power supply in villages.

Vice-president Gayathri Revanna said that many electricity poles were damaged and needed immediate replacement. She directed the officials to replace the poles near schools without delay.

CESC Executive Engineer Ravishankar said that the personnel are attending to the cases as soon as they get complaints.

Premakumari said that many villagers are complaining that drinking water supplied through tankers is contaminated so the officials should take measures to supply pure drinking water.

The officials claimed that they have sunk 892 borewells at a cost of Rs 9 crore but only 593 are functional. As many as 111 villages are receiving water through tankers and 80 villages through borewells, they said.

Karnataka Rural Infrastructure Development Limited (KRIDL) Assistant Executive Engineer Mallappa said that they have established 133 pure drinking water units in the district and five units are pending as no sites were available.

ZP Chief Planning Officer Dhanush was also present.