It is not only the severe crisis of drinking water in the districts of Palamu and Garhwa that forced Palamu BJP MP V D Ram to raise a starred question in the lok Sabha, the BJP MP has a list of villages in Palamu and Garhwa districts which are facing a double whammy of paucity and contamination of potable water.
According to MP 48 villages in Palamu and 277 villages in Garhwa district have high percentage of fluoride and arsenic in the water which is unfit for human consumption. An NGO Paryawaran Company has been roped in to purify the water of these two contamination.
V D Ram said this summer a total of 550 new tube wells are to be sunk in Palamu and Garhwa. When asked that such a haphazard mining of under ground water is no solution to tide over crisis of this magnitude he said, “the State Government has already launched schemes for retention and detention of surface water/rain water.”
The BJP MP’s another concern is the repair of fault ridden tube wells whose number is quite staggering 1,219.
To bail out the marginal farmers in this dry time V D Ram said, “ I want revival of lift irrigation. I wrote letter to the Government but nothing tangible has been done so far.” He declined to say if any fund crunch or human resources or police issue is any behind in the revival and revamping of lift irrigation here.
The Pioneer asked the BJP MP that before the Assembly election in BIhar this year five MPS including him were making loud pronouncements with regard to the functioning of the Mandal Dam but now none speaks about it to which he said, “the Bihar Government is throwing all the spanner. It is not giving the fund. Here the issue has got stuck. I am hopeful this dam will start working.”
Palamu BJP MP who is a former IPS officer and had held the post of State DGP is known for his candid comments as on one occasion he had said if Indira Awas a scheme worth Rs 75,000 can languish for years one can understand the fate of multi crore schemes.
His other concern is rural water supply like lalgarh rural water supply. He said he is on the job to get this scheme sanctioned Singra rural water supply is next on his list he added. The urban water supply in Garhwa was in limbo for non payment of compensation to the raiyyats whose land was acquired for this urban water supply. He said this hurdle has been resolved now. V D Ram’s aide Mangal Singh was present in his press briefing.