Bhubaneswar: The Congress party has lashed out at the state government for its alleged failure to provide safe drinking water to the people even after ruling the state for 18 years.
“BJD government led by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has announced scores of schemes in last 18 years and spent huge amount from state exchequer. For this the total debt burden of the state is going to touch Rs1 lakh crore. But the state government has taken no steps to provide safe drinking water to the people,” Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Niranjan Patnaik said Friday in a statement. He claimed that coastal districts of Puri, Ganjam, Kendrapara, Bhadrak, Balasore, Jagatsinghpur and Cuttack are facing acute water shortage during summer.
Stating people are unable to get water for their daily use, he said, “Where there are tube wells or piped water supply system, high content of fluoride or iron makes it useless. BJD government is not at all giving importance to this vital and basic issue.”
Only they are providing potable water in some places for around two months during summer. But at all other times, people are facing lots of problems to collect safe drinking water. Every year a number of deaths are occurring because of diarrhoea and hepatitis by drinking contaminated water, he said.
As per the reply given by the Union Health Ministry in the Lok Sabha, Odisha stands at No 5 in ground water contamination index. Ground water in 25 districts out of 30 in the state is contaminated because of high fluoride content, the Congress leader said.
Likewise, Odisha is lagging behind in road construction. Patnaik said, after the state government was felicitated by Centre for road construction, Congress brought the real picture before public. Still 10,000 villages in the state have no road connectivity. “Both BJP and BJD governments are misleading the people and their (governments) days are being counted,” he added.
Reacting to the Congress allegation, BJD spokesperson Samir Ranjan Das said, “Naveen Patnaik government has always given utmost priority for drinking water facility for all the people of the state. After Congress left the state in a devastating stage, BJD government has provided drinking water facility for about 80 per cent of the people while process is on to provide water to the remaining 20 per cent.”
Even, where there is a power supply problem, drinking water projects are being taken up through solar power, he added.
