Telangana Government Takes up Household Survey on Status of Mission Bhagiratha in Villages

Adilabad: The Telangana government has taken up a household survey to ascertain the status of the Mission Bhagiratha (MB) scheme in villages and urban areas, vis-a-vis supply of drinking water to households across the state.

After getting the survey report, the first of its kind, the government would streamline the scheme in ways as to make it more beneficial to the people.

The state government embarked on the survey following the reports that many villages are not being supplied drinking water under MB, and that there are no tap connections but only pipelines in several areas and there was damage to the pipes.

The BRS government had introduced Mission Bhagiratha as its flagship scheme.

The government is likely to send a new proposal to the central government, seeking sanction of funds under the Jal Jeevan Mission. This is for providing drinking water connections under MB to new houses that come up in villages following marriages or separation of family members, repairs, maintenance etc.

The state government has engaged NREGS field assistants, village secretaries, IKP staff and local electricity staff to conduct household surveys on the status of Mission Bhagiratha.

The staff uploads the photo of the water tap with the house to the mobile App and details whether the household is getting drinking water under MB, whether there is a tap connection or not, whether the tap is functioning, whether there is any damage to the pipelines to the house and were they drinking the water or using it any other purposes.

The Irrigation department and RWS staff are not involved in the household survey.

Pandra Jayawanth Rao, MPP of Utnoor mandal, said the staff of different departments conducted a household survey on the MB scheme in his Ghanpur gram panchayat.

The villagers mostly depended on the borewells in their villages with the onset of rains and groundwater table increases, he said.

During his visit to the Adilabad district, chief minister A Revanth Reddy had sanctioned `60 crore for drinking water supply during the summer in the Komaram Bheem Asifabad district.

Panchayat Raj minister Seethakka advised officials to conduct the household survey on Mission Bhagiratha in the villages and chlorinate the water tanks before supplying drinking water during the monsoon to the households. She also reviewed the status of the old and new connections under MB.

She said officials should help prevent the spread of the seasonal diseases by insisting on sanitation and chlorination of drinking water. They should guard against contamination of drinking water w during the monsoon.