JANGAON: The reservoir close to Station Ghanpur division with 1.57 TMC capacity, is abundant with water. And yet, Ghanpur villagers are struggling to arrange drinking water. Every day, people here can be seen carrying 15-litre water cans for which they shell out Rs 20. The villagers were hopeful that when the State government announced new drinking water pipeline connections to every household, as part of its Mission Bhagiratha. However, even after the expiry of the stipulated deadline for completion of all works related to the State government’s flagship drinking water project, works are pending in Station Ghanpur sub-division of Jangaon district. The Ghanpur residents are now forced to depend on groundwater and other sources for drinking water purpose.
The Station Ghanpur sub-division covers nearly 60,000 households. Recently, the minister for Panchayat Raj, Errabelli Dayakar Rao, held a high-level meeting with the officials and people’s representatives, and instructed the concerned officials to speed up the works. According to officials, the minister said that the pending works mostly consist of intra-village works, like tap connections, renovating 120 old overhead tanks, and building another 132 new tanks.
P Srinivas, a resident, alleged, “We did not get any connection under the Mission Bhagiratha. Every day we buy drinking water from private operators who charge anywhere between `20 and `25 for a 15-litre can. The entire village then buys drinking water cans from us.” Recalling the poll promises of TRS leaders, Srinivas said, “During elections, they made tall promises that TRS government is providing safe drinking water. But in reality, till now they have not given any pipeline connections to households.”
Speaking to Express, the deputy executive engineer for Mission Bhagiratha in Ghanpur sub-division, B Karun Kumar, said, “The major portion of physical works which is the process of laying pipelines, is 80 per cent completed.” Referring to allegations that old tanks were being repainted in colour blue to show for lack of progress in the scheme’s works, he said that these were baseless.