Siddaramaiah-Patil clash hits water scheme

Bengaluru: The government's failure to release funds for  Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister,  H K Patil's pet scheme  to install water purification units in villages  short of drinking water, has led to speculation that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah 's personal differences with him could be responsible.

Mr Patil's pilot water purification scheme in Gadag district helped him win the 2013 Assembly polls and since then he has been keen on extending it to other villages suffering acute scarcity of drinking water. But he hasn’t received the neccessary financial support for the project from the state government. Although it promised  to release nearly Rs 400 crore for it, the scheme has not received  any funds for the last two years, allegedly because Mr Siddaramaiah has not cleared the pertinent files. Most of the companies that came forward to install the water purification units , have  backed out due to the delay.

“Why  Mr Siddaramaiah is not releasing adequate funds for this scheme is hard to understand,” say party  insiders. The delay is bound to have made Mr Patil unhappy as he had announced in the legislature that he would resign if he did not set up 7,000 of these units before March 31, 2016 in the state.

He found rare support in leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council,  K S Eshwarappa , who said on the floor of the House that he did not  want Mr Patil to quit as “he has been doing a good job in the RDPR.”  The Chief Minister, he said, must set aside his personal differences with the minister and release the funds required in the interests of the people.

While 7,000 water vending machines were to be installed  over the last three years in various villages under the scheme,  only 1,600 units have been set up so far.