It has been four years since work on the piped drinking water was initiated in Siskela village under Saintala block by the the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (RWSS) wing. But the project is far from over.
While time overrun has escalated the initial project cost of `85 lakh, work on the project has stopped for the last one and a half years. The project was aimed at supplying drinking water to Ghantasuni, Kanopada, Uparpada, Talpada, Jagannathpada, Samaleswaripada, Laxminarayan, Harijanpada and High School Pada of the gram panchayat headquarters having about 4,000 population.
The project is located on the banks of Sunamukhijoar in Ghantasunipada and after drawing water from an intake well proposed to be dug up in Sunamukhijoar, it would be supplied to households after treatment.
Even power supply was provided from Belgaon grid to Ghantasunipada for the purpose and transformer installed. While the transformer has been removed by the RWSS officials following threat of theft, no effort is being made by them to expedite the project.
Gobardhan Majhi of Siskela village said the delay in commissioning of the project will land them in drinking water crisis this year also. He said the villagers were planning to hit the streets to draw attention of authorities to the delay.
Executive Engineer of RWSS, Balangir division, Srikanta Mishra said as he had assumed office recently, he had little idea about the pending project. However, he assured to expedite it before April-end.