State cracks down on drinking water wastage: Minister urges vigilance as about 467 FIRs filed

Kolkata: Taking a tough stand against the wastage of drinking water, the Public Health Engineering (PHE) department has started taking action against those who were wasting water and also creating hindrances in supplying drinking water to households.

State PHE Minister Pulak Roy in the Assembly urged all the MLAs to keep surveillance in their respective constituencies so that drinking water is not wasted. The department has already introduced helpline numbers – 8902052222 & 8902066666 where people can register their complaints relating to the drinking water supply.

The minister also said that his department has so far received complaints relating to the illegal use of drinking water from 19,962 locations across the state. These were all Panchayat areas.

As many as 467 FIRs have been registered out of the total complaints so far.

According to the minister, the state government has already provided drinking water connections to 94,06,194 households. The government has a target of ensuring water connections to around 1.75 crore households under ‘Jal Jeevan Mission’.

The minister also clarified that his department was only giving water connections to the households in the panchayat areas.

While holding a virtual meeting with the districts, the Chief Minister, last Monday, sent across a strong message saying that those who were not performing and hence affecting the water supply to the people should be blocklisted.

Banerjee directed the administrations to impose a penalty on those people because of whom the piped drinking water could not be ensured to the households.

She had also stated that she would carry out a stock-taking exercise every Monday.

If she remains unavailable, Chief Secretary Manoj Pant will hold the meeting, Banerjee had said.