Complete Newasa water schemes soon, tankers must be last resort: Gulabrao Patil
Water Supply and Sanitation Minister Gulabrao Patil has directed that unfinished water supply schemes in Newasa be completed and commissioned at once, with tankers kept as the last option.
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Amid the water scarcity, Water Supply and Sanitation Minister Gulabrao Patil has directed that the pending work on water supply schemes be completed immediately and the schemes commissioned. He said that supplying water by tanker should not be the first option but the last one. Plans should be drawn up to give people regular water by making good use of the available water sources, he said.
A review meeting for the Newasa Assembly constituency on the water scarcity was held at the Mantralaya. Newasa MLA Vitthalrao Langhe and officials of the water supply department concerned were present. The Chief Executive Officer of the Ahilyanagar Zilla Parishad and the officials concerned joined the meeting by video.
Patil said that in schemes where 75 to 99 per cent of the work is done, work on electricity connections, pipeline connections, minor repairs and jobs held up for want of money should be finished immediately. If regular funds are delayed, he said, these works should be taken forward by providing money from the scarcity relief plan as required. According to him, this would bring the schemes into operation sooner and reduce dependence on tankers.
Reviewing the schemes in the Newasa constituency, he said 18 schemes are stalled. Of these, directions were given to complete the 16 retrofitting schemes first. The officials concerned were also told to prepare a time-bound plan to finish the remaining work on a war footing, so that regular water supply can begin in the villages by December or January.
Transparency in supplying water by tanker and removing any scope for irregularities were described as essential. For this, the meeting stressed introducing a digital tracking app system to monitor entries of tanker trips, the water actually delivered and its distribution. It was also said that tankers should be deployed only according to genuine need.
During water scarcity, other measures have been asked to be given priority over starting tankers straight away. These include acquisition of wells as required, temporary tap schemes and pipeline work, deepening of wells, desilting and taking horizontal borewells. Minister Gulabrao Patil said the departments concerned should work in coordination to give scarcity-hit villages sustainable and regular water by making proper use of the available water sources.
