Palamu has made an increase of 8 percent in the Nal se Jal yojna when about 2 years ago it staggered at just 3 percent. Sources said the percentage is sluggish but not without reasons.
Sources said it will take another 3 years to achieve a respectable percentage of the achievement in the Nal se Jal yojna here if at all it achieves 60 percent of tap water connection in the rural areas.
This department has just three junior engineers at its disposal. 'Nal Se Jal' yojna in Palamu's rural area has many obstacles and all are man made. The hurdles come from the forest, NH, railways etc.
These departments do not issue NoC as a result laying down of the underground water pipes gets stuck up said sources. The forest department threatens to sue the drinking water and sanitation department personnel while the NH and the railways just overlook the pleas of the drinking water and sanitation department said sources.
Sources said there are pockets of people who also create obstacles in the Nal se Jal yojna.
Executive engineer of the drinking water and sanitation department here in Daltonganj Ashutosh Kumar said the forest department has halted our Nal se Jal tap water scheme between Gangwar and Chhaterpur.
It is a 20 kilometer stretch out of which forest land accounts for just one and a half kilometres only and here the department is not allowing us to lay our water pipes, reminded Ashutosh.
There is the problem of the NH 98 at Hariharganj in Palamu with the similar issue of NoC not being given to us for house tap water connection, said the executive engineer.
The railways have thrown its spanner in Hussainabad which is obstructing our department to have water pipes through the drainage of the railways, added Ashutosh.
Locals of a hamlet at Nawada under the Paton block in Palamu pelted stones at the team of the drinking water and sanitation department when it was out there digging sand bed of a local rivulet for the setting up of an intake well for the Nal se Jal yojna informed Ashutosh.
The locals had this fear that intake wells in their rivulet would render their rain fed rivulet all dry round the year which had no truth at all.
He said we had to face a very tough situation here but somehow or the other we managed to set up an intake well there at this hamlet of Nawada under the Paton block.
Nal se Jal has to be reached in 3,63,453 households in Palamu. However it has reached only 42, 964 households till date which comes to 11.82 per cent of the total target of 3,63 453 households.
Executive engineer Ashutosh said the Nal se Jal yojna was launched by the government of India in 2019 when came 2 elections in Jharkhand first the Lok Sabha and the other Vidhan Sabha both in the year 2019 and then the catastrophe of the Covid 19 pandemic and these all have slowed down the pace of Jal se Nal yojna here in Palamu.
There is an acute problem of high content of fluoride in the underground water here in Palamu. Incidentally surface water like river water, pond water, tank water etc has no issue of the fluoride etc.
There is a well furnished water testing lab on the premises of the Daltonganj based drinking water and sanitation department here which charges 146 rupees test fee for samples of water that a resident wants to know about the quality of the water that he or his family is consuming.
Samples of institutional sources of the underground water like tube wells etc are tested free.