BHUBANESWAR: Minister for Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water Rabi Narayan Naik on Tuesday said the BJD government had completed just three mega pipe water supply projects during its tenure, whereas 22 have already been commissioned in just 17 months of BJP rule in the state.
Replying to a question from Arvind Mohapatra (BJD) and supplementaries from other members in the Assembly, Naik said of the 207 projects, just 25 had been completed in the last five years with the bulk in the last one year-and-half.
Coming down heavily on the previous BJD government, the minister said due to its incompetence people in rural areas were deprived of getting drinking water supply. The previous government had only laid pipes without doing other civil works to supply water, he said and added that the BJP government has completed civil works of 66 projects till now.
The minister said the BJD government had given contract to companies from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and other states. It had also released 80 per cent of the funds to those companies without verifying whether they had completed the work. An allocation of Rs 35,193.24 crore had been made for the projects, out of which Rs 17,502.12 crore was spent between 2020-21 and 2025-26 financial, he said.
The minister said there were also other reasons for delay in the completion of projects like land acquisition issues, delays in statutory approvals and right-of-the-way clearances from different departments. He added that the government has formed a high-level committee headed by the development commissioner to review the progress in the implementation of the projects regularly.