Berhampur: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Thursday laid the foundation stone for the much-awaited drinking water project under ‘Buxi Jagabandhu assured drinking water to all habitation’ (BASUDHA) scheme.
The Chief Minister laid foundation stone for the mega project at Gomundia under Krushnaprasad block of Puri district. Under the scheme drinking water will be provided to 147 villages, including 55 in Ganjam block and 92 in Krushnaprasad block.
For the residents of Ganjam, he launched the scheme at a function organised at Salt Ground in Humma town in Ganjam district through video conferencing.
During the conference, he also assured the third bridge over river Rushikulya at Ganjam town to come up in near future.
The project will benefit people of nine panchayats in Ganjam district while a new dry fish weekly market ‘haat’ will soon open at Humma.
The mega pipe water scheme (PWS), implemented by Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water Department is expected to benefit drinking water scarce in villages of Puri and Ganjam districts. The plant will source water from Rushikulya river and is estimated to cost around Rs 183 crore.
Two days back, the CM had launched ‘BASUDHA’ Helpline-1916, a dedicated grievance management initiative for rural water supply in the State.
The helpline will receive complaints regarding drinking supply in rural areas between 6 am and 6 pm. The grievances will be addressed in a time-bound manner.
The BASUDHA scheme was launched in 2017-18 as a tribute to Buxi Jagabandhu in the bi-centenary year of Paika Rebellion with a budgetary outlay of Rs 600 crore. The State Government provided Rs 1,000 crore for the scheme in 2018-19.
The Government has built 78 state-of-the-art water testing laboratories across Odisha to ensure that the supplied water meets the necessary quality standards. Official sources said more than five lakh samples are being tested in a year.
The objective of the scheme is to provide adequate safe water to rural people for drinking and domestic purposes on a sustainable basis.
MLA Pradeep Panigrahy and Chhatrapur MLA Dr Priyanshu Pradhan, District Planning Board Chairman, MLA Dr R C Choupatnaik, Zilla Parishad chairman Subash Behera were present during the video conference.
Among others were Ganjam Collector Vijay Amrit Kulange, Project Director, DRDA, SS Swain, Zilla Parishad vice-president Snehalata Panda and leaders of BJD were present.
PNN