Drinking water units installed erroneously: Interim report in ZP meet

Mangaluru: A special committee, which was formed to verify the installation of pure drinking water units in Dakshina Kannada district, furnished its interim report during the Zilla Panchayath meeting held here on Saturday, September 22 and informed that the drinking water projects were not being implemented properly in any Gram Panchayat.

Zilla Panchayat Standing Committee Chairman Janardana Gowda, while submitting the report said, “Though the project was good, it was not implemented properly. There is no proper way to access the drinking water units and most of them were set up in the uncleaned areas. Though the officials of Karnataka Rural Infrastructure Development Limited (KRIDL) have taken up the responsibility of installing drinking water units in every Gram Panchayat limit, the requisite care was not taken. Despite these shortcomings, the KRIDL officials are claiming of the 102 planned that 57 drinking water units had been already set up and installation of 45 more is in progress. However, not a single drinking water unit is functioning properly now”, he said.

‘Take action against PDOs’

Meanwhile, MLC Ivan D’Souza asked Zilla Panchayath Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr. Selvamani R to take stringent action against the Panchayath Development Officers (PDO) citing that it is their duty to ensure the progress of the project. “As it was a good project aimed at resolving the drinking water problems, more care needed to be taken. However, the PDOs seem to be negligent. I will bring it to the notice of State Minister for Agriculture Krishna Byre Gowda”, he said.

ZP CEO Selvamani directed the PDOs to monitor the drinking water units. “Some drinking water units thoroughly monitored by the PDOs in Bidar district yielded the desired results. Hence, PDOs need to pay special attention towards this project,” he said.

The absence of Revenue Department irks ZP members

Earlier, Zilla Panchayat members questioned the absence of the Revenue Department claiming that several issues had remained unsolved owing to the absence of Revenue Department. The lack of communication between the two government departments hinder the development works, they pointed. Meanwhile, MLC Ivan D’Souza asked the CEO to issue a notice to the Revenue Department and urged him to take appropriate action against the officials. Another member Hareesh Kanjipili suggested, “If the deputy commissioner of the district is unable to attend the meeting, he should send at least two senior officers of the revenue department.

Later, Zilla Panchayat President Meenakshi Shanthigodu asked CEO to instruct the revenue officials to attend the meeting compulsorily.

Bribe issue echoed in ZP meeting too

The allegation of Taluk Panchayat Executive Officer Sadanand demanding bribe from PDOs echoed in the Zilla Panchayat meeting too. The members of Zilla Panchayat questioned how Sadanand was allowed to continue in his duty even after such a big allegation against him. CEO Selvamani responded that he would verify the case properly and take action if the allegation proven against Sadanand.

‘Compensation should be disbursed immediately’

Pointing at the lapse in distributing compensation to the victims of natural calamities, Zilla Panchayath member Mamatha Gatti said, ”Though several houses were damaged during the heavy rain, the compensation has not been provided to the victims even after four months. Why is the Tahsildar taking so long to disburse compensation?,” she questioned and urged to do the needful immediately.

Zilla Panchayat Vice President Kasthuri Panja and Standing Committee Chairman Ibrahim among others were present.