Bhubaneswar: In a bid to ensure safe drinking water to people ahead of the summer, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Thursday directed the officials concerned to complete the maintenance work of all drinking water supply projects by March end.
Chairing a high-level review meeting at the Secretariat, Patnaik directed the officials to start the maintenance work as soon as possible and ensure that there will be no drinking water crisis in the state.
He further instructed the rural development (RD) and panchayati raj (PR) department officials to work in coordination with other officials and prepare an action plan for supply of safe potable water to the people during the summer season.
It was also decided at the meeting that an independent agency would be engaged to collect authentic data on drinking water problems in various parts of the state. Daily maintenance of rural drinking water supply projects, payment of electricity bills, digging of bore wells and their maintenance have been assigned to the PR department, official sources said.
Similarly, the government has decided to appoint a nodal officer at block levels who would monitor drinking water supply works regularly. The officer would submit reports to the block development officer (BDO) on regular intervals, the sources said.
The state government has further decided to expedite the process of installation of solar energy-based drinking water projects in the Integrated Action Plan (IAP) districts- Koraput and Malkanagiri.
To ensure adequate drinking water supply in urban areas, the housing and urban development (H&UD) department has prepared a standard operating procedure (SOP). According to the SOP, a control room would be set up to provide drinking water through tankers whenever required in any urban setup in the state. To make real-time assessment and proper coordination, the government is using social media – WhatsApp, they said.
RD minister Badrinarayan Patro, RD minister of state (drinking water) Pradeep Panigrahy, Chief Secretary AP Padhi, Development Commissioner R Balakrishnan and RD secretary Madhusudan Padhi were also present at the meeting.
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