Karnataka - Mysore   

Drinking water and toilets for 21,500 villages, says Shobha

MYSORE: The Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, Shobha Karandlaje, said here on Friday that the Bharatiya Janata Party Government would lay stress on the twin issues of providing drinking water and toilets for 21,500 villages in the State that have been deprived of these basic amenities.

Speaking to presspersons after holding a series of talks with officials here in her capacity as the Minister in-charge of Mysore district, Ms. Karandlaje said it was regrettable that successive governments had turned a blind eye to rural development. As a result, people were disillusioned with villages and were migrating to urban areas for petty jobs.

“My dream is to ensure that these villages are provided with the basic amenities, like drinking water and toilets within the next three years,” she said.

We will seek funds from the Centre in addition to tapping World Bank and other financial institutions to undertake the project and will rope in the services of experts who will function in their capacity of an advisory body, said Ms. Karandlaje. “There are positive developments in various States, including Gujarat, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh, and our intention is to replicate these success stories in our State, for which we will rope in the services of NGOs, academicians and various institutes of repute,” she added.

More than 8,000 villages in Gujarat were provided with drinking-water facility within one year and it is this type of success that needs to be replicated, she said.

The Government would also involve corporate bodies, including the IT and BT companies based in Bangalore, and will egg them on to shoulder greater corporate social responsibility, said the Minister.

“North Karnataka is an example of Government negligence as a result of which people lack basic amenities. Women folk have to wait for darkness to set in for their daily ablutions. I have witnessed this personally during my tour. Hence, I will give stress on provision of toilets and drinking water in rural areas,” said Ms. Karandlaje.

In reply to a question on Grama Vastavya started by the former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, she said, she had a different perception of the concept. “I will camp in rural areas not to receive applications and petitions but to distribute the fruits of development to the people,” she said.

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