Babus on toes as Mission Bhagiratha goes slow

​Hyderabad: The State government’s prestigious programme to supply drinking water to every household in Telangana, the Mission Bhagiratha, though attracted international attention, seems to have run into sort of trouble as some of the executing agencies are delaying the works. 

The inordinate delay in completing the project in some areas, however, has forced the authorities to instruct the Rural Water Supply (RWS) officials to handle them through the department. 

Mission Bhagiratha chairman Vemula Prashanth Reddy has given instructions to the superintending engineers of the RWS in this regard. He told them to take action on the work agencies which have been delaying the works. Reminding the directions of the Chief Minister that each house in the State should get protected water, he said the RWS officials should work hard to achieve the objectives. 

He told the officials of the RWS to prepare guidelines for taking over the works from the contractors who have been delaying them. RWS Engineer-in-Chief reportedly explained that the works being taken up by the department in Sanga Reddy and Suryapet had been progressing well. Officials of the Mission Bhagiratha have been holding regular reviews on the implementation of the project and reviewing the progress of works in all the segments regularly. 

It may be recalled that the Chief Minister vowed that he would not seek votes in the next elections if the project is not implemented completely by end of this year. As only seven months are left in this year, the officials have been after the district level officials to ensure the completion of works. 

Mission Bhagiratha has been taken up to provide treated surface water to all households in the State with an estimated cost of Rs 42,000 crore. The works have been divided into the packages and allotted to several companies. 

The officials wanted to complete the bulk supply part of the project by December last year. However, the works were not completed in some areas. Many of the villages have been facing acute drinking water shortage for the past two months. 

Though the summer is coming to an end in a few days, many villages have not got bulk supply of water. The residents of these villages are fetching water from agriculture pump sets travelling one to two kilometers. The Agency areas are badly hit as they do not have other water sources than rivulets. 

Ministers and Collectors have been calling the RWS officials for getting the works completed. However, the officials have been passing the buck on to the contractors. With this, the Mission Bhagiratha officials is learnt to have decided to entrust the works to the RWS officials so that they could be completed at the earliest. The RWS officials will directly supervise the works and implement them with the help of government funds. The RWS officials are also told to complete the intra village works as per the schedule.