Panchayat raj minister Dr D. Anasuya Seethakka told Deccan Chronicle that the state government was facing difficulties in getting funds under Jal Shakti because of the acts of omissions and commissions of the previous government.
The ground reality is contrary to what the previous government had projected. Many villages located in the interiors and hilly areas are not getting drinking water under Mission Bhagiratha in erstwhile Adilabad district. People, especially women, are trekking long distances to fetch water from streams, rivulets, agriculture wells and borewells.
Dr Seethakka said secretaries of the panchayat raj department had met Union jal shakti ministry recently seeking funds to provide drinking water to villages in the state. They were shocked when the ministry officials revealed details of the information submitted by the BRS government about Mission Bhagiratha’s ‘100 per cent success’ rate.
She said that recently Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy had sanctioned `60 crore for drinking water supply in Komaram Bheem Asifabad district. Dr Seethakka said that real development can’t be built on false information. Sustainable development can only be ensured with commitment, sincerity and allocation of funds.
It has been found that there is hardly any coordination among officials of RWS, Mission Bhagiratha and gram panchayats.
Meanwhile, residents of Utnoor said that Mission Bhagiratha officials were passing the buck and blaming gram panchayats. They maintain that they had entrusted Mission Bhagiratha scheme to gram panchayats, whose ‘responsibility it was to supply drinking water’ to villages and colonies.
Utnoor BRS MPP Pandra Jayawanth Rao said that people of Chaprala and Guttaguda in Ghanpur gram panchayat were facing drinking water problems since there was an urgent need to repair damaged pipelines.
Mesram Nagorao of Chaprala said villagers were still dependent on the only available well for drinking water and other purposes. Not even one of the four borewells is functional in Chaprala village, he said.