Bengaluru, 18 March

State government has decided to set up an expert committee on Monday to solve the persisting drinking water problem in the City.

“It is been decided to form an expert committee to solve the perennial problem of drinking water in the City. Drinking water should be used judiciously. Misuse of drinking water needs to be stopped,” said Chief Minister Siddaramaiah while addressing a press conference.

Siddaramaiah held a meeting with Chief Secretary Rajneesh Goel, Additional Chief Secretary of Urban Development Department Rakesh Singh, BBMP Commissioner Tushar Girinath and BWSSB Chairman Ram Prasath Manohar.

The City is currently facing a shortage of 500 million litres per day (MLD) of drinking water, said Siddaramaiah. “Bengaluru gets 1,470 MLD of water from Cauvery River and the rest is through the 14,000 borewells out of which 6,900 have gone dry. However, Bengaluru needs 2,600 MLD of water and nothing more can be pumped by Cauvery,” he said.

Speaking about the arrangements made for drinking water, Siddaramaiah said, “We have collected enough water for drinking water in Cauveri and Kabini Rivers. We have collected enough water that should last till the end of June.There is 11.02 TMC water storage in KRS, 9.02 TMC in Kabini. We are also drilling new borewells at 313 places. 1200 inactive bores will be revived.”

He further said that he has advised the officials to provide water to the low lying and high laying areas with water tankers. 1,700 private tankers have registered with the government so far. “143 taskforces have been formed in this regard. An instruction has been given to increase the number. Actions to refill 14 major lakes of Bengaluru has been taken,” Siddaramaiah said.

Siddaramaiah attacks Prime Minister

Siddaramaiah attacked  Prime Minister Narendra Modi who was in Shivamogga the Lok Sabha elections campaigning. Referring to the electoral bonds, Siddaramaiah said, “BJP government is the most corrupt government. If they want to question us, they can file a complaint against us to the Nagmohan Das Committee. The infamous 40 per cent corruption was of their government’s. There was no investigation into that matter.”

Responding to Modi’s allegation that the State is bankrupt, Siddaramaiah said, “ Everything Modi says in his speech are lies. We have been struggling from drought since the past five months. Though we have requested for Rs 18,175 crore for relief funds but we did not gain any support from them.” Salar News