BIJAPUR: Minister for Rural Water Supply Govind Karjol said here on Monday that a Rs. 82-crore action plan has been drawn up to tackle the drinking water problem in rural Karnataka during summer.

Addressing presspersons, he said summer has already set in, and villages are facing drinking water shortage. Fifty-two villages are getting water through tankers, and their number is bound to go up. However, it is expected that the severity will not be as it was last year.

He said there is no dearth of funds for the purpose. Gram panchayats, with which the responsibility of supplying drinking water has now been vested, have been asked to accord priority for supplying drinking water. The funds have been credited to their account. They can get any number of borewells sunk. However, there are complaints that many of them are not discharging their duties effectively. Works are getting delayed because in most panchayats those at the helm of affairs want to entrust the work to their men, he said. Because of this, the common man is suffering. Hence, the Government is thinking of going back to the old system where zilla panchayats used to look after the drinking water supply and maintenance.

Stating that supplying safe drinking water is one of the challenges before the Government, Mr. Karjol said that of the 56,000 habitations in the State as many as 21,000 do not have clean water.

He said rainwater harvesting is the only remedy to overcome the problems.

Hence, it has been decided to issue permission for new buildings only if they have provision for rainwater harvesting.Further, those who have rainwater harvesting infrastructure will be given concession in property tax, he said.

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