Bhubaneswar, April 3: Odisha Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi Saturday directed the officials for deploying more water tankers and mobile vans in the water scarcity-hit areas of State.
Padhi asked the Panchayatiraj department for giving necessary suggestion about utilisation of funds, which have been provided to gram panchyats as per the recommendations of the 4th State finance commission and 14th Central Finance Commission, for drinking water supply, water project repair and maintenance.
The gram panchayats can dig new tube well and set up piped water supply project as per the requirement, he said.
Around Rs 1400 crore has been provided so far to the gram panchayats on basis of state and central finance commissions in the year 2015-16.
Rural Development Principal Secretary PK Mohapatra suggested all the engineers of the department and gram panchayats for digging new tubewells and deep borewells between March and June for the drinking water supply project in the villages, sources said.
The Rural Pipe Water Supply department has been asked to provide necessary technical assistance keeping eyes on the drinking water supply project and tube well project, which are being carried out by the panchayats in the villages, sources said.
A help line number – 1800234566 has been launched by the Rural Development department for hearing the drinking water related issues and fast address of the grievances. Necessary action will be taken within 48 hours of the grievances made through the helpline number. A system has been made to reach the grievances directly to concerned authority and principal secretary if the grievances will not be addressed within the deadline, sources said.
Besides, a grievance hearing camp regarding the drinking water issues will be organised at Panchayatirj department every Monday in next three months from this week. The camp will be held headed by PR director Debendra Prasad Das comprising Rural Development engineers and PR officers, the meeting decided.
The government has directed the Rural Water Supply Executive Engineers to take steps by reviewing the block wise situation in the district level. Notably, total 10,500 piped water projects and 4,10,000 tube wells have been set up across the State so far.
