No solution to drinking water woes of Chittoor city

Chittoor: City is facing drinking water shortage for several years but there is no permanent solution to resolve the issue. Chandrababu Naidu, during his first term as Chief Minister, had promised to supply water to city by diverting Telugu Ganga water from Kandaleru reservoir. Adikesavulu Naidu, who was then Chittoor MP, made futile effort for diverting Telugu Ganga water to Chittoor city.
During the tenure of Kiran Kumar Reddy as Chief Minister, a Comprehensive Protected Drinking Water Supply Project with an outlay of Rs 5,500 crore was sanctioned for providing water to entire district by diverting water from Telugu Ganga to entire district.
An administrative sanction was accorded during Kiran Kumar Reddy’s rule. However, the TDP government cancelled the project after it came to power in 2014 on political grounds. From then onwards, no drinking water scheme was envisaged to quench the thirst of city residents.
The Chief Minister has assured of supplying drinking water to city by diverting the water from Handri-Neeva Sujala Sravanthi (HNSS) project. Hence, his earlier promise of diverting Telugu Ganga water from Kandaleru reservoir to Chittoor was broken. It is evident that the Chief Minister is very particular to divert HNSS water to his native Assembly constituency Kuppam on priority basis than to provide water for city.
The Chief Minister would take up aerial survey to inspect ongoing works of Handri Neeva Kuppam Branch Canal (HNKBC) on Saturday. The HNKBC works were taken up at a cost of Rs 480 crore. Naidu reportedly is not keen on development of district for political reasons. In the previous general elections, the TDP won only 6 Assembly seats from the total of 14. Moreover, the Chittoor MLA DK Satyaprabha lacks experience to resolve drinking water
problem of city residents.
The Chittoor Municipal Corporation (CMC) has been supplying drinking water to residents through water tankers for the last two decades. With rise in transportation costs, it has become burden for CMC to supply water through hired water tankers.
Speaking to The Hans India here on Friday, Municipal Commissioner Suresh admitted that transportation of water through hired tankers in the city was stopped due to lack of funds. He said a report was submitted to the State government seeking release of Rs 7.6 crore drought funds at the earliest for resuming transportation of water through hired tankers. City residents are hopeful that the Chief Minister might announce a plan on Saturday for finding a permanent
solution for drinking water problem.