State has Rs 800 cr to handle drinking water crisis: minister

State officials will have to bear responsibility or face action for failure to address the water problem (Reuters)

TheKarnataka government on Monday said it had asked state officials to utilize the nearly Rs 800 crore available for drinking water schemes to initiate measures and ensure that no village in the state goes without drinking water this summer.

Rural development minister H K Patil said in a media interaction that the government had formed committees and asked officials to ensure that no drinking water scarcity is experienced this summer. Patil said district-wise daily reviews of the situation had been ordered to tackle the drinking water situation in rural areas in the summer.

“There is about Rs 800 crore available to tackle drinking water scarcity. Funds are not a constraint,” he said.

State officials will have to bear responsibility or face action for failure to address the water problem, Patil said.

The rural development and panchayati raj minister said he had issued notices to officers on leave to return immediately to work to tackle the drinking water crisis in the state.

The government has pressed 702 tankers into service in the state and is focused on recharging borewells with around 3,487 borewells pending re-charge, he said.
The daily review meetings of the water situation would begin Tuesday in di

stricts like Haveri, Belgaum, Davangere, Tumkur, Chitradurga and Koppal, he said.