Post News Network
Joda, Jan 25: Summer days are still a few months away, but people of Jurudi Jalhari at the heart of mineral-rich Joda block of Keonjhar district have started feeling the pinch of water scarcity. Though the state government has set up a deep bore well here, it has failed to serve its purpose.
In 2006, the rural water supply and sanitation department took note of the water woes of people and decided to set up the deep well behind the panchayat office. However, the work of the project undertaken a year later was completed in 2011. The department also laid pipelines to various villages like Patra Sahi, Munda Sahi, Kapur Hutting, New Colony and KMC Hutting, but the work has remained incomplete.
As for the problem, assistant engineer of the RWSS division at Champua, Ajay Kumar Behera said a person died after falling into the well, as a result of which the local sarpanch is reluctant to supply water from the well. The panchayat is not taking the responsibility of the project. In addition, the village transformer has been stolen, he explained. When asked over phone about how long it will take to make the project operational, the assistant engineer evaded the question.
Jalhari sarpanch Mita Munda said the department has not yet cleaned the well even after the death of a person who fell into the well. Munda said the government works usually take time. But the district collector will be intimated about the project.
Residents like Balram Patra, Sanatan Munda, Sahila Munda, Mansingh Munda and Alekha Patra claimed to have taken up the matter with the collector at his grievances cell, and said no steps are being taken to make the project functional.
Former sarpanch Radhakant Nayak said the project was estimated at Rs 74 lakh and now its cost has escalated causing the delay. The residents are now worried about how to face the water scarcity during Summer.