Patna: The standing committee of Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) on Monday approved Rs 7.5 crore for de-silting drains, which is supposed to start from next month.

The committee's decision would now be put into PMC's board for getting a further nod.

"The fund is huge. We need PMC board's approval for this," said mayor Sita Sahu.

The standing committee also approved a decision of installing reverse osmosis (RO) water kiosks in 55 different locations of the state capital that has to be set up and further maintained by a private agency.

The kiosks would not charge residents for the purified water.

According to a standing committee member, the private agency has been asked to finalise all locations where the water kiosks would be set up in collaboration with the local ward councillors.

The standing committee members also reached a consensus that an alternative arrangement should be made to look after door-to-door garbage collection work of the corporation.

In another decision, the standing committee members kept 16 former tax collectors, who were previously working under the corporation on a commission basis, in the skilled workers' category.

"The worker would be used in various works of PMC. They would also be used in identification of eligible holding tax payers who were presently not paying their tax," said a standing committee member