From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network

Bengaluru, Mar 16: As the summer is setting in, the people of rural areas in different districts of Karnataka have already started feeling the heat and as many as 3,979 villages were suffering from serious drinking problems, claimed BJP opposition leader in the State Assembly Jagadish Shettar on Monday.

Initiating the discussion on the budget for the year 2015-16, the former chief minister urged the Siddaramaiah regime to take action right now so that the people were not put to great hardships in the months of April and May when the situation was likely to become worse.

Shettar said he had already written to deputy commissioners of all the districts seeking information from them on the drinking water situation. 

He claimed that the Deputy Commissioners have replied stating that the information from them indicated that 3,979 villages were in the grip of a serious drinking water shortage

The State Government needs to release Rs 184 crore to the deputy commissioners tackle the situation in these villages during summer months.

“This is a serious issue and the State Government must act on a war footing immediately.

Reading out the information he had obtained from the deputy commissioners, Shettar said 522 villages in Chikkballapur and 348 villages in Kolar districts were among those facing drinking water shortage.

Hassan accounted for 952 such villages facing shortage of drinking water while the districts of Chitradurga (481 villages), Kalaburagi (362), Ballary (283), Bengaluru Urban (169) and Yadgir (210) also accounted for big chunk of villages facing drinking water shortage, he said.

The situation was worse in the parched districts of Old Mysore region/central parts of the State such as Kolar, Chickballapur, Bengaluru Rural, Tumkur, Chitradurga and Haveri, he said

The BJP leader warned the Government that people of these areas may lose patience and take to streets if measures were not taken immediately to provide permanent drinking water supply facility by pumping water from rivers.

He expressed concern that people of these districts were in dire straits as the groundwater had almost become non-potable there, he said.

Shettar also alleged that the government did not have clarity on important project like Yettinahole which was conceived to supply drinking water to the parched districts.

Earlier the BJP members tried to raise the issue through an adjournment motion, which was disallowed by Assembly Speaker Kagodu Thimmappa.