Review meetings to address drinking water crisis

The Karnataka government would hold day-to-day review meetings in districts to discuss the preparedness of officials to tackle drinking water crisis, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister H K Patil said today.

The meetings would commence from tomorrow in various districts including Haveri, Belgaum, Davanagere, Tumkur, Chitradurga, Koppala and others, Patil told reporters here. He said, the government had also formed committees to monitor the situation and has asked officials to ensure that no village faced drinking water scarcity. About Rs 800 crore was available with the government to tackle drinking water scarcity. “Funds are not a constraint,” he said.

He said, officials will be held responsible and disciplinary action initiated against them if they failed to take immediate steps to ease drinking water problem. Patil also instructed higher officials to issue notices to those officers who were on leave to immediately resume work to address drinking water problem.

He said government had pressed into service 702 tankers in the state to tackle drinking water problem. The government was also focused on recharging borewells and there were 3,487 borewells pending energising, Patil said.