District in-charge Minister Umashree has set a deadline of two weeks for completing all drinking water supply works in the parched district.
At a meeting of officials of various departments at the Deputy Commissioner’s office on Monday, she pointed out that with summer intensifying, water scarcity was bound to be severe. “All our work should be focused on helping the people sail through the drought. Bidar is expected to receive rainfall in the second week of June. We have to make sure that the people don’t suffer till then,” she said.
She said that there was no dearth of funds for water supply works and the State government would release any amount for this purpose and warned against wastage of funds.
Officials said over 900 works were being undertaken across the district at a cost of around Rs. 3 crore to supply water to habitations. As many as 20 tankers were being used to supply water to villages and towns.
Desilting
Balbhim Kamble, project director, District Urban Development Cell, said the desilting of 30 tanks and 48 wells had been completed at a cost of Rs. 15 lakh. He also pointed out that around three lakh cubic metres of tank bed soil was given free of cost to farmers to be used as top soil for crops.
Anurag Tewari, Deputy Commissioner, pointed out that this was the lowest cost of dredging compared to similar works in other districts. He said that apart from 400 temple kalyanis, another 100 wells and 40 tanks would be cleaned.
The Minister asked officials to take up drilling of borewells as the last resort, after trying all other attempts like deepening and flushing of borewells, cleaning of open wells and tanks, and acquiring private borewells.
