Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has proposed to set up teams in rural areas to oversee installation of underground pipelines and bring them under 100 days' work scheme.
Malay Ghatak, state, Public Health Engineering minister said he would talk to his predecessor Subrata Mukherjee, state Panchayat and Rural Development minister on the matter and the 100-day work scheme falls within
his jurisdiction.
Participating in the Question hour, Samir Jana of Trinamool Congress said work is on to lay pipeline to provide drinking water in the remote areas in south 24-parganas where the water quality is poor.
But when the pipelines are laid, some times, villagers break the pipes to extract water for their benefit.
Admitting this, Mamata Banerjee said it has often been seen that locals cause damage to the pipes and the water extracted is used to irrigate their land.
As a result of this, public money worth crores of rupees is wasted.
She suggested formation of groups comprising locals to monitor laying of pipelines and they will report to the Panchayat whenever attempts are made to break the pipes.
"I suggest formation of committees comprising locals to oversee laying of pipes so that such recurrence of untoward incidents can be controlled,"
Banerjee said.
It may be mentioned that local groups set up by the Panchayats have played positive roles in creating awareness of people to stop
open defecation.