BENGALURU: Lokayukta Justice BS Patil castigated the state government for its failure to provide pure drinking water to Yadgir district despite spending huge amount in setting up water purification units in 471 locations.
The Lokayukta pointed out that 247 units are not working. He charged the government with utter negligence. He said it is disappointing that the concerned department, the ZP have been negligent to people’s needs.
On Tuesday, the ZP CEO of Yadgir failed to appear in person and submit the action taken report, in compliance with the repeated directions and a summons issued to him on September 10 by the Lokayukta.
The Lokayukta had marked a copy of the order to the principal secretary of the rural development and panchayat raj and the chief secretary. The Lokayukta observed that the conduct of the authorities prima facie amounted to dereliction of duty.
The Yadgir ZP CEO deputed an executive engineer, Basavaraj, along with a letter addressed to the scrutiny officer. The letter stated that 471 pure drinking water units were handed over to panchayats. Every month Rs 3,000 is given to panchayats, apart from instructing them to utilise the amount of the 15th Finance Scheme and also out of the funds collected from taxes.
It was also stated in the letter that Rs 10 crore and Rs 79 lakh is demanded from the state government for carrying out the repairs of the drinking water units, and a sum of Rs 18.33 crore is sought from the Kalyana Karnataka Region Development Board.
