BHUBANESWAR : Minister of Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water Rabi Narayan Naik on Monday announced that all the mega rural pipe water supply projects in the state will be completed by June next year.
Addressing a media conference here, the minister said the state government has also decided to relax the norms for sinking tubewells. As per the new decision, one tubewell will be sunk for every 70 people instead of the earlier guideline of one tubewell per 150 people.
Naik said the BJD government had started 207 mega rural pipe water supply projects in December, 2022 and January, 2023, out of which only 16 were completed till the BJP government came to power in the state. The projects were stalled due to various reasons, including delays in the conduct of detailed engineering surveys and investigations, identification of the source of water and approval of different departments, he said.
Stating that the government has taken steps to complete the remaining 191 mega rural pipe water supply projects in three phases, the minister said 56 projects are targeted to be completed by March 2025 in the first phase. In the second phase, 54 will be completed by December 2025, the minister said and added, the remaining 81 projects will be completed by June 2026.
According to the new guidelines, if the population of a village is 71 or 72, two new tubewells will be sunk. Besides, new tubewells will also be sunk in place of defunct ones. New tubewells will also be taken up in isolated, tribal-dominated and remote habitations, schools, anganwadi centres, SC/ST hostels as per requirement without population restriction, he added.
The minister further said that a decision has also been taken to pay the electricity bills of mega rural pipe water supply projects which are pending for a long time out of the BASUDHA funds for 2024-25. Electricity dues which are pending central finance commission and state finance commission grants have been exhausted, he added.