Belagavi officials asked to ensure drinking water availability in every household in the coming months

‘The State government has released ₹25 lakh to each one of the drought-hit taluks for supplying drinking water’

District in-charge Secretary Anjum Parvez inspecting food being served to children at an anganwadi in Belagavi. Deputy Commissioner Nitesh Patil, Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer Rahul Sindhe and others are seen. | Photo Credit: P.K. Badiger

Belagavi district in-charge Secretary Anjum Parvez has asked officials to ensure that no villages, towns or habitations suffer from drinking water scarcity in the coming months.

He asked officials to prepare a list of habitations that can suffer water scarcity, based on past history and complaints from the public.

“Officials are empowered by law to take over wells, borewells and other private water sources to supply water to the public. This provision should be made use of,” he said.

The State government has released ₹25 lakh to each one of the drought-hit taluks for supplying drinking water. Apart from this, Belagavi district has received ₹2 crore for drought relief works, he said.

The Secretary asked Deputy Commissioner Nitesh Patil to ensure that all farmers who have suffered crop loss receive compensation. A total of 3.26 lakh farmers have received ₹60.4 crore in compensation. And, 1.4 lakh farmers are yet to get compensation.

Efforts should be made to see that no farmer who has suffered crop loss is left out of the list, he said.

He observed that only 15% of registered MGNREGA workers have got 100 days of work. He asked officials to ensure that all those willing to work are given work and wages.

He observed that around 5% of registered applicants have not yet received monthly payments under Gruha Lakshmi scheme. “As many as 10,318 youth have registered themselves for the Yuva Nidhi scheme in the district. All eligible beneficiaries should get the amount after verification,” he said.

Joint Director of Food and Civil Supplies Shreeshail Kankanawadi said that ₹320 crore has been released to beneficiaries of Anna Bhagya in lieu of additional foodgrains.

Mr. Patil said that payment of compensation to families that have lost their breadwinners is slowing down due to the large number of deaths and due to mismatch in documents. The district administration is going through records of 72,000 deaths. A significant portion of these cases have been resolved already. The others are under consideration, the Deputy Commissioner added.

Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer Rahul Sindhe said that permanent doctors can be appointed to rural clinics as temporary doctors are not willing to join them.