Daijiworld Media Network – Mangaluru (AM)

Mangaluru, Apr 29: Mangaluru South MLA D Vedavyas Kamath on Monday, April 29 alleged that Congress leaders in the previous government did not take any measures to solve problems of drinking water in their tenure which has led to shortage and rationing of water in the district.

Addressing media, Kamath said, “BJP government took the decision to increase the height of Thumbe vented dam. Even though the new vented dam can store around 7 metres of water, we are forced to store only 6 metres of water now due to technical reasons.

"Congress government and the existing coalition government did not take any measures to provide compensation to people who lost their land. Therefore, leaders of Congress party and the ruling coalition government in the state is responsible for the water shortage here,” he said.

Pointing out loopholes in implementing the drinking water projects undertaken during the first phase of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) funded scheme, Kamath said that a total of Rs 160 crore was spent in the first phase of the ADB scheme to provide water to the people which has not happened till now. He said that to ensure proper implementation of the ADB funded scheme, a third party inspection agency should be deployed as Rs 461 crore has been released for the second phase of scheme and there should be no misuse at any cost.

Kamath further alleged that Congress leaders and corporators do not even call the Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) engineers to solve problems when public approach them.

However, Kamath supported water rationing in the city in the present circumstances and also said that people should not waste water unnecessarily.

BJP leaders Nithin Kumar, Ravishankar Mijar, Premananda Shetty and others were present.