Karkala: Karkala Town Municipal Council (TMC) has wasted Rs 2 Lakh public money by digging a new borewell without repairing a defective one in Kallotte area.
The amount involved may appear insignificant but the move by the TMC to dig a new borewell which may not last, raises more questions while failing to provide answers.
Kallotte is facing acute water shortage this summer. A borewell dug in 2008 in the area stopped functioning due to poor maintenance despite availability of sufficient underground water resource. The machinery and electric connections have rusted over a period of time and the old borewell is now covered by weeds exposing the poor maintenance by TMC.
Karkala TMC has gone ahead with a new borewell and has spent Rs 2 Lakh for the purpose. The new borewell is not fully operational even after 4 months of its installation with necessary electrical and mechanical accessories. Many areas are facing acute water shortage but the attitude of the TMC in delaying water supply has left many residents perplexed.
An express line project from Ramasamudra to Bandimatt failed to achieve desired results as the water supply through this mode has remained insufficient. Many illegal tap water connections from the express line are making it non–viable. To make matters worse,efforts by the public in bringing the issue to the notice of officials and authorities concerned have gone in vain.
Through the new borewell, the TMC hopes to supply water to residents in Jarigudde locality which is at a distance of 6 kms. If it passes through a private land the distance will be reduced by 2 Kms . However, if private land owners object to the passage of borewell pipes through their land, then the project again may not bear the fruit as the delivery of water might remain insufficient due to distance and altitude in the area.
New bore well may perish during road widening
The new borewell was dug on the edge of Pervaje – Bandimatt highway. Residents feel, during road widening the new borewell may become part of the wider road! Poor planning and maintenance has resulted in waste of public money, said Sathyendra Bhat, an agriculturist from Bhagyanagar area of Kallotte. This new borewell might get buried during road widening in the near future before pumping water, giving TMC planners a free hand to take up another “new public utility project” using “public resources” to benefit “certain sections of the society” by coining the entire process as “development!”
