The Uttarakhand Chief Secretary had ordered an inquiry one year back into the alleged irregularities and misuse of funds in the dream project Nanghat drinking water scheme by a committee led by the Garhwal Commissioner, but the inquiry has not yet been started so far. Garhwal Commissioner CS Napalchayal said that he has no knowledge of this inquiry.
However, if there is any instruction on it the probe will be conducted, he added.
On the complaints of misuse of Rs5 lakh in the project during the period of maintenance, District Magistrate Chandra Sekhar Bhatt had asked the Superintendent Jal Nigam to conduct the inquiry, but the report is yet to be received by the district administration. The supply of water from the Nanghat drinking water scheme started to Pauri many months back, yet Jal Nigam failed to supply the required amount water to district headquarter Pauri and the project has not yet been transferred to Jal Sansthan so far.
The Nanghat drinking water project was executed by spending Rs62 crore out of Rs71 crore total budget to solve the water crisis in Pauri town. But it has failed to serve its purpose because of severe anomalies in its execution and its construction. The locals have been raising the demand for high level technical inquiry or a CBI inquiry into the alleged misuse of money in the project construction. This project was constructed by the Peyjal Nigam Pauri and many executive engineers were involved in it.
Over Rs62 crore was spent on the construction, but the scheme proved insufficient to meet the requirement of drinking water to district headquarter Pauri. Pauri town kept facing severe drinking water scarcity despite Alaknanda pumping scheme being operationalised in Srinagar. Before the inception of Uttarakhand, during the President’s Rule in Uttar Pradesh in the early 1990s, then UP Governor Moti lal Vohra approved the project during his visit to Pauri. later, the project got the final approved thanks to consistent efforts of then Union Minister Maj Gen (Rtd) BC Khanduri in 2003. The Planning Commission had approved
Rs5 crore for the project in the initial stage; but the released funds were withdrawal later by the Congress Government. Former Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna inaugurated the dream project on 9 November 2012, but the inauguration has turned out to be little more than formality, because the desired service has not yet been provided.
The project was initially only gravity based but it was later linked with the pumping system established in Khand, particularly for summers when the quantity of water becomes less at the source. The cost of the project has gone up from Rs43.28 crorer to Rs71.37 crore over the years.
The Nanghat natural water source is located in the remote area of Thallisain Tehsil in Pauri district and is in the midst of a forested area. The project was designed to supply 4.25 MlD water per day. According to the information available with the department, in the first phase of the project, 2.6 MlD water is being supplied to Pauri town. One filter of 2.6 MlD capacity has been installed whereas one reservoir of 13,500 kilo liters capacity has been constructed at Nagdev. The full 4.25 MlD water will be distributed in the second phase in 2017.
The length of the pipeline of the project is 68.21 kilometer from the natural source Nanghat to Pauri town.
The technical experts point out that the DI pipes used in the scheme are not feasible for the mountainous areas and are generally used in the plains. The question being asked is why the Payjal Nigam installed DI pipes covering a length of 46.21 kms. The locals are complaining that in spite of over Rs62 crore being spent on the project, the water supply has remained limited to only few minutes in the summer and 45 minutes in winter.