GULBARGA: Deputy Commissioner Pankajkumar Pandey, who is also Administrator of the Gulbarga City Corporation, on Saturday said steps were being taken to improve the drinking water situation in the city and added that a drive against illegal water connections would be taken up from Monday.

Addressing a press conference here, Mr. Pandey said the identification of areas where there was illegal tapping of drinking water from the main line had been completed and the corporation officials would launch the drive and provide permanent drinking water connections to all houses in these areas to prevent them from tapping the water from the main pipeline.

`Situation bad'

Admitting that the drinking water situation in the city was bad, Mr. Pandey said there were many reasons for the present situation and one major hurdle in providing regular drinking water to the city was the erratic power supply by the Gulbarga Electricity Supply Company in the past few days owing to problems in the Raichur Thermal Power Station and the Shahabad Station. He said that he had taken up the issue with the managing director and the chairman of the KPTCL and the problem had been solved.

Water supply

He said the GESCOM was maintaining uninterrupted water supply for pumping water from the Saradgi Barrage on the Bhima and the Bennethora pumping station.

However, the requirements of people in the city could not be met owing to inadequate pumping of water from the Bennethora and Bhima sources. Once the work on laying the alternative pipeline from Saradgi Barrage to the filter bed was completed by January 15, adequate water could be pumped to the filter bed.

Bad roads

On the bad condition of the city roads, Mr. Pandey said the corporation proposed to acquire a road pothole machine which was being used in other corporations such as the Pune City Corporation. Till the machine was purchased, the corporation authorities had been directed to take up pothole-filling work on all roads on an emergency basis, he added.

However, one of the major constraints was the lack of funds for taking up the maintenance works in the corporation, he said.

Mr. Pandey said the corporation required nearly Rs. 60 lakh every month for maintenance of the drinking water supply system, drainage, lighting, garbage removal and road maintenance.

But, the revenue collection in the corporation had been poor.

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