Karnataka   

Funds sought to tide over drinking water scarcity

DAVANGERE: Davangere Zilla Panchayat chief executive officer Guthi Jamboonath has stated that the district needed Rs. 8 crore immediately to tide over the drinking water scarcity in villages in the district and urged Minister for Agriculture and district in-charge S.A. Ravindranath to get the money sanctioned from the Government.

At the quarterly review meeting of the Karnataka Development Programme here on Monday, Mr. Jamboonath said that the zilla panchayat had prepared a Rs. 23-crore action plan and sent it to the Government, seeking the money under the Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme. However, the zilla panchayat had not received a reply from the Government.

Zilla panchayat Standing Committee on Social Justice chairman Govindaswamy also urged the Minister to pressure the Government to release funds. Mr. Ravindranath said that he would soon meet the Minister for Rural Development, apprise him of the situation, and urge him to release the funds.

Mr. Jamboonath said that during his visit to schools in Honnali and Chennagiri, he had found that the furniture provided to the schools by an agency were of substandard quality. He had asked the school managements to return the furniture and had issued orders not to pay the agency, he said. The agency had also been blacklisted.

Mr. Govindaswamy alleged that District Health Officer Shivanna Reddy had abruptly stopped a programme designed to train rural women to care for pregnant women in emergencies under the Asha scheme, because the authorities of the school, where the programme was being held, reportedly did not give him a commission for the programme. The school authorities had complained to him against the DHO’s demands, he said.

He also alleged that the official often suspended paramedical personnel for small mistakes and demanded money from them to revoke the suspension orders.

The chief executive officer said that he had also received similar complaints from several health personnel and the Minister raised the issue with the DHO, who replied that the programme had been stopped because of lack of funds.

The Minister ordered that the programme be restarted immediately, and promised the immediate release of funds. He also asked the chief executive officer to look into the allegations made by Mr. Govindaswamy and the health personnel and submit a report within a week.

The Deputy Director of Public Instruction said that he had issued directions to all schools to get a katha for school land; 40 per cent of schools had not registered their land, he said.

He also said that an officer had been assigned the task of checking bicycles before they were distributed to students, in the wake of complaints that the bicycles supplied had some parts missing.

Panchayat Standing Committee on Health and Education chairman P. Ramanagowda and Basavaraja Naika, MLA, were present.

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