'Constitute House panel to examine defunct RO plants'

Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) Minister Krishna Byre Gowda on Monday said as many as 2,498 Reverse Osmosis (RO) drinking water plants in the state were defunct.

Replying to Mahantesh Kavatagimath (BJP) in the Legislative Council, Gowda said numbers were ascertained after a recent survey carried out by a joint task force set up by the department.

The BJP, however, refused to accept the numbers provided by the minister and demanded setting up of a House panel to look into the irregularities in the scheme. Charging that more than 50% of the RO plants were defunct, they said that the scheme was ridden with corruption.

The minister said 11 companies had been levied a penalty of Rs 8.19 crore for performance violation. He assured the House that all the defunct units will be operationalised by July 15.

The government has installed 14,305 RO plants, in addition to commissioning 13,597 units.

Gowda said the government had released Rs 1,300 crore for installing these units, of which Rs 1,115 crore had been spent. Works worth Rs 200 crore are under implementation stage.

But when the Opposition insisted that the government set up a House committee, Gowda said that he would convene a meeting of MLCs elected form local bodies.