Bhubaneswar: Odisha MLAs, cutting across party lines, Tuesday expressed concern over the lack of safe drinking water in several rural areas of the state ahead of the summer season.
The members, including Manoranjan Dyan Samantara (BJP), BJD chief whip Pramila Mallik, and Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Rama Chandra Kadam, raised the issue during the Question Hour of the Assembly.
Initiating the debate, Samantara raised questions over the lack of safe drinking water for people in the three panchayats of his Chikiti constituency.
“While the previous regime had not taken any step to provide drinking water to the residents of the three panchayats, the BJP government has deployed tankers to supply water in the area,” he said.
The BJP legislator said that a permanent solution is needed, and a mega water supply project has been proposed, but work on the intake well in the area has not yet started.
Similarly, Mallik expressed concern over reports of a rising number of cancer and kidney-related ailments in the Dasarathpur block of Jajpur district, allegedly linked to the consumption of contaminated tube-well water.
“Is the government aware of it?” she asked while seeking clarification on steps being taken to ensure safe drinking water in the block.
Kadam alleged that the state government has failed to provide safe drinking water to rural residents.
All parts of the state are facing drinking water crises, and the MLAs are facing public ire, he said.
The Congress leader asked the government when the mega drinking water projects will be completed, and all households will get safe water.
In his reply to the questions, Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water Minister Rabi Narayan Naik said the previous government had dug 26,000 tube-wells during its tenure, whereas the BJP government has dug the same number of tube-wells in one year.
Ruckus was witnessed as ruling and opposition members indulged in a war of words while the minister was replying to Mallik’s question.
He informed the assembly that the government has provided tap water connections to over 68 lakh households, ensuring around 77 per cent coverage.
To ensure a safe and adequate drinking water supply to all rural households, the state government has taken up a total of 207 mega drinking water supply projects in the state, Naik said.
Out of these, 26 projects have been completed, and another 28 projects will be completed by the end of this month, the minister said, adding, “We have set a target to complete all remaining projects by March 2027.”
Due to a lack of proper planning, the intake well (source of water) in about 18 projects has been changed to other places, he said.
Naik said the government is aware of the reports of contaminated water in Dasarathpur and said the mega drinking water project in the area will be completed by June, as 96 per cent of the work has been completed.
The minister appealed to all MLAs to come forward and extend a helping hand to the government for the early execution of the pending drinking water projects.