The State Government on Tuesday decided to provide drinking water to all poor urban households free of cost and to spend Rs40 crore for the purpose.
The decision was taken at a high-level review meeting on the prevailing drinking water crisis in the State chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at the State Secretariat here.
“The Chief Minister ordered verification of all water supply hot spots under the Rural Water Supply department within seven days and asked the concerned Chief Engineer to submit a certificate of verification to the Government in this regard by April 30,” said Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) Pradipta Kumar Mahapatra after the meeting.
The SRC office was instructed to release Rs 25 crore to augment water supply through pipes, tankers and additional vans to the urban areas.
The CM directed the concerned departments to dig one tube well each in all 27,711 partially covered habitations in the State at a cost of Rs195 crore, said Mohapatra.
Mohapatra said the CM also directed all panchayats to earmark at least 30 per cent of their fund for pipe water supply to be done by the Rural Water Supply (RWS) Department.
“It has been also decided that about Rs300 crore given by the 13th Finance Commission to all panchayats in the State, which is now with the district administration, will be earmarked for drinking water infrastructure. Besides, drinking water supply would have the No 1 priority in the amount provided by the 14th Finance Commission and 4th State Finance Commission to the panchayats for infrastructure development work,” said Mohapatra.
The Chief Minister also warned sarpanchs of strict legal action for negligence in this regard.