Provide meter based water supply to avoid misuse of water'

Mangalore, May 8: Panchayats must make sure that water supply is monitored to houses via cent per cent meter system said A G Kodgi, Chairman, Third Finance Commission Report.

Chairing a Task Force meet at Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat, Mr. Kodgi demanded an explanation from the officials of the concerned department regarding meter system being followed in the district. On being told that water is supplied to most houses without meter monitoring, he expressed discontentment and asked Shailaja Bhat, President, Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat and Dr. K N Vijay Prakash, CEO, Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat, to convene a meeting at the earliest and direct all Gram Panchayats to adopt meter based water supply to houses.

“There is no water scarcity in Dakshina Kannada district. It is just that water is being misused. By bringing some houses under the meter rule and leaving out others, you are giving scope for misuse of water. There are people who use water for their farms and are not being held accountable since there is no meter and the rest of the village is left without water at the end of the day”, he observed.

Mr. Kodgi also asked officials to ascertain as to how many houses in the different villages have wells and how many are self-sufficient in water. “You must first make a list of how many houses actually need Panchayat water. You also do not have an idea as to how many MLDs a Taluk requires”, Mr. Kodgi pointed out to an official.

He also said on the occasion that there is enough surface water in the district which should be utilized. “Tanker supply and borewells are meaningless systems. They are ways to loot the state treasury. More the number of borewells, the more ground water level will go down”, he said.

A common lapse, Mr. Kodgi said, in the panchayats of various districts that he visited, was the inaccurate information being given to his team.

Dr. K N Vijay Prakash, CEO, Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat, brought to the notice of Mr. Kodgi that a proposal to provide water to 216 villages under the multi village scheme had been submitted to the government.