Bhubaneswar, April 19: With mercury hovering above 40°C and a heatwave lashing the state, the government today decided to extend school holidays up to April 26 and also reviewed measures to tackle drinking water supply.
Director of regional meteorology centre Sarat Chandra Sahu told The Telegraph that the temperature would rise further from April 21 and the heatwave condition was likely to continue till April 26.
The government had earlier announced school holidays till April 19. It had also decided to provide midday meals in drought-hit areas during the summer. An estimated Rs 81 crore will be spent for the purpose.
At a meeting, chief minister Naveen Patnaik today reviewed the water supply scenario in various parts of the state. Water supply being the biggest casualty of the heatwave, he asked officials to ensure supply of potable drinking water to every nook and corner of the state. The government also cancelled the leave of the officials responsible for supplying drinking water.
It was also decided today that the drinking water situation would be reviewed once a week by the chief minister and every three days by departmental minister.
The meeting took place today in the wake of the Opposition's allegation that potable drinking water has become a scarcity in remote rural areas of the state, forcing the people to consume contaminated and polluted water. Last week, a BJP delegation had met Governor S.C. Jamir and sought his intervention to resolve the crisis. It had also made the drinking water crisis an issue during its recent mass contact programme Jan Kalyan Yatra.
The Congress is also targeting the government on the issue.
The government today also decided to sink an additional tubewell in each of the 27,711 areas with partial water supply at an estimated cost of Rs 195 crore.
Special relief commissioner P.K. Mohapatra said Rs 25 crore would shortly be released to augment water supply through tankers and additional vans.
The chief minister asked the gram panchayats to earmark 30 per cent of their funds for drinking water supply. According to the 73rd Constitutional amendment, drinking water supply has been transferred to panchayati raj institutions. While the funds have been placed with the rural bodies, the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Organisation will maintain the rural pipe water supply projects and tubewells.
Asking the panchayats to cooperate, Naveen warned that action would be taken against negligent sarpanchs.
The chief minister directed the panchayati raj department to spend Rs 300 crore on developing drinking water infrastructure from the surplus grants of the 13th Finance Commission and third State Finance Commission.
The officials were also asked to verify all the rural drinking water supply projects and water sources within a week and take corrective measures.Besides, officials of the urban development department were instructed to provide piped water supply free of cost to all urban poor.
In another development, some 422 places under 185 wards of 24 urban local bodies have been identified as "water scarce" where 64 tankers and 619 plastic water tanks have been pressed into service.
