Accepting the proposal made by Raichur Deputy Commissioner S. Sasikanth Senthil, Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj H.K. Patil gave a free hand to the officer to take over all the Reverse Osmosis (RO) plants established in rural areas from private agencies. He was presiding over a special meeting of the cabinet sub-committee on drought at the zilla panchayat conference hall here on Thursday.
When ZP CEO Kurma Rao submitted to the meeting that three private agencies that bagged contract for establishing and maintaining 231 water purification plants in the district had failed to provide clean drinking water to the people, Mr. Senthil opined that the only and lasting solution was taking over the plants from private agencies and running them under the Panchayat Raj Engineering Department.
“I completely agree with your suggestion. You have a pro-people approach. The government’s noble initiative to provide safe and clean drinking water is spoiled by these private agencies. Take over all the plants into your hand and run it for a couple of months before handing them over to the panchayats concerned. Also, take stringent criminal and civil action against all the three delinquent agencies for breaching terms of agreement,” the Minister told Mr. Senthil.
“We will take over all the plants from private agencies within a week and run them under PRED for two months before handing them over to the Gram Panchayats. If any technical problem develops in the plants after that, PRED engineers will fix them,” Mr. Senthil assured.
The Minister also directed Mr. Senthil and Mr. Rao not to close any water purification plant operational in those villages whose water sources were contaminated with high-level of arsenic toxin under any circumstances. “There are reports that water purification plants are being shifted from the villages where there is no demand. But, don’t shift or close them in arsenic-affected villages even though the demand for water is less,” he said.
Earlier, the Minister visited a couple of drought-hit villages in Raichur taluk.
