BHUBANESWAR: The State Government on Wednesday sanctioned additional financial assistance of Rs 1,000 crore for completion of drinking water projects under Buxi Jagabandhu Assured Water Supply to Habitations (BASUDHA) scheme.
The additional assistance was announced by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik days after his Cabinet giving approval to two rural pipe water supply projects for Boudh and Nabarangpur districts.
Under the BASUDHA scheme, the State Government has approved rural pipe water supply project for Boudh district, which would benefit 2.92 lakh people. The project will be developed with an investment of `427.59 crore. Another water supply project worth `555.42 crore has been approved which will benefit 3.17 lakh people in tribal-dominated Nabarangpur district.
The Government had launched BASUDHA in 2017-18 as a tribute to Buxi Jagabandhu in the bi-centenary year of Paika Rebellion with a budgetary outlay of `600 crore. The budgetary allocation under the scheme was enhanced to `1,000 crore in 2018-19 and a similar amount has been kept for 2019-20.
The objective of the scheme is to provide adequate safe water to the rural people for drinking and domestic purposes on a sustainable basis.
Meanwhile, the Government has built 78 state-of-the-art water testing laboratories across Odisha to ensure that the supplied water meets the necessary quality standards.
Official sources maintained that more than five lakh samples are being tested in a year. The Government has also adopted strengthening measures like engagement of Authority Engineers and Third Party Quality Monitoring. The objective of the scheme is to provide adequate safe water to rural people for drinking and domestic purposes on a sustainable basis.