Bhubaneswar, June 30: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik today launched 100 more urban piped water supply projects, eight new aahar kendras (cheap meal centres) and a city bus service between Jeypore and Koraput towns.
Dedicating the projects from the state secretariat, Naveen said that around two lakh people living under 46 urban local bodies across 21 districts would benefit from the piped water supply scheme.
Most parts of the state experienced acute drinking water scarcity this summer due to erratic monsoon and depletion of groundwater, which also triggered widespread resentment among the people.
Realising the problem and its future consequences, the government was prompt in its decision to expedite work of the piped water supply projects. The housing and urban development department had identified 422 water-scarce areas in 185 wards of 24 urban local bodies across the state. It was decided to provide piped water supply to these areas within two years.
On April 20, the chief minister had dedicated 100 urban piped water drinking projects in the first phase. A 10-million-litre-per-day (MLD) capacity water treatment plant has also come up at Paralakhemundi, the district headquarter town of Gajapati.
"This will immensely benefit the people of Paralakhemundi as they will get sufficient drinking water from now," said executive engineer of the public health engineering department (PHED), Berhampur division, Sitaram Panda.
"We are now supplying drinking water to Paralakhemundi town for four hours a day from today. Earlier, we used to supply water for two and half hours a day," said assistant executive engineer of PHED Duryodhan Sahu.
The eight new cheap meal centres, which were also inaugurated by the chief minister today, came up at Udala, Karanjia, Anandpur, Nilgiri, Chandikhole, Kamakshanagar, Pattamundai and Konark. These are small towns located in Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Balasore, Jajpur, Dhenknal, Kendrapara and Puri districts.
Today, Naveen also released two booklets on the Aahar Yojana and piped water projects. Three documentaries on the projects were also screened.
