Bhopal: 272 water supply scheme functional, 997 defunct

Bhopal: 272 water supply scheme functional, 997 defunct

Staff ReporterUpdated: Thursday, May 30, 2019, 03:22 AM IST
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Bhopal: Out of 1269 rural water supply schemes under Bundelkhand Mitigation Package as many as 997 schemes are non-functional. This startling revelation came to fore when six teams examined these developmental works undertaken by Public Health Engineering Department (PHE) in the drought-hit region. And even 272 schemes which are still operational have failed to supply adequate water in the area, leaving people high and dry.

The Chief Technical Examiner (CTE) had written a note about the findings in the probe report. The CTE was directed to look into the anomalies in the implementation of the project. The central government had awarded the mitigation package to the Bundelkhand area which was hit by drought and poverty and was facing migration problem. Under the project the then UPA government had allocated Rs 3680 crore to uplift lot of the people living in the region including Sagar, Damoh, Chattarpur, Tikamgarh, Panna and Datia.

For the rural drinking water supply scheme, an amount of Rs 100 crore were allocated to these six districts, but instead of coming up with a sustainable schemes, the PHE department failed to utilize the money for suitably. The officials chose the water source very carelessly and even the distribution pipelines were of very poor quality. The department had prepared 1287 rural water supply schemes for the six districts, the probe team had examined 1269 schemes.

Looking into the anomalies in the implementation of the scheme, social activist Pawan Ghuwara had taken up the matter to senior officials at the PHE, however all his complained went unheard. He filed the petition in High Court Jabalpur seeking its intervention and to conduct inquiry into the irregularities. The HC instructed CTE to conduct a probe into the matter.

The CTE, RK Mehra informed that the six teams have conducted inquiry and found various irregularities in the project execution, the reports had been submitted to the PHE department for the further actions against their corrupt and irresponsible officers. Pawan Ghuwara informed that the teams had submitted the reports in which various irregularities were mentioned, like out of 1269 schemes, 997 were found non-functional. Only 272 were water supply scheme were found operational and that to have utterly failed to cater to the needs of the people there.

The department have chosen the water source very carelessly, and thus they are unable to supply water round the year. The water source was based on ‘spot supply method’ not on the village level supplies. The teams had also found that in 202 villages the quality of the distribution pipeline was of sub-standard. And as for the procurements, the department had violated the department procurement procedure.

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