Karnataka: Kolar tops in irregularities of drinking water units, says K S Eshwarappa

Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister K S Eshwarappa on Monday directed officials to lodge criminal cases against those disrupting efforts to remove pump motors at borewells that had dried for reuse.

He chaired a meeting here to review the status of drinking water and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) works.

He expressed displeasure that the officials did not have data about the pump motors at the borewells that had dried up.

“The officials should remove the pump sets in police protection and store them at gram panchayat offices. Cases should be registered against those disrupting removal of the pump sets,” he said.

MLA K R Ramesh Kumar said that vested interests were preventing the efforts to remove the pump motors. Some criminality is involved which is causing losses to state exchequer that should be prevented.

“Drinking water crisis in the region is serious. Influential people are illegally storing the water in rural areas. The poor people don’t receive water at all. The sumps in rural areas should be closed,” he sought.

KGF MLA M Roopakala justified Kumar’s demand and said that at some villages gram panchayat presidents and members were indulging in such illegal acts.

Malur MLA K Y Nanje Gowda said that old pump motors were fixed to new borewells in his taluk and that there were no problems.

Eshwarappa alleged that the Kolar district was in top in irregularities in commissioning and managing purified drinking water units. The district needed more such units as people were completely dependent on borewells. The officials had ignored the proper management of such units.

He said that the officials were providing false data and misleading the elected representatives.

“How can the act of protecting the interests of agencies managing such units be justified? The contract should be cancelled if the agencies fail to manage the units properly. An amount of Rs 3000 should be given to each village for the repair of the units,” the Minister said.

There is drinking water crisis in 216 villages in the district of them 69 villages are receiving water through tankers. Water from private borewells is used to supply in the rest of the villages, Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer H V Darshan said.

District in-charge minister H Nagesh, MP S Muniswamy, MLAs K Srinivas Gowda, S N Narayana Swamy, MLCs R Chowda Reddy, Y A Narayana Swamy, Naseer Ahmed, Zilla Panchayat President C S Venkatesh, vice-president Yashodha, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj department principal secretary L A Ateeq, department commissioner Dr Vishal, MGNREGA commissioner Anirdh Sravan and deputy commissioner C Satyabhama were present