Karwar: State Revenue Minister R V Deshpande took the officers concerned to task, here on Wednesday, May 29, for not acting promptly towards the drought situation.
Chairing a meet in the Deputy Commissioner’s office to assess the drought situation, he directed Deputy Commissioner Dr. Harish Kumar K to issue a show cause notice to the Tahsildar for not identifying private borewells having good amount of water and making an agreement with such parties.
Taking on the Tahsildar, Deshpande said, “It is the duty of a Tahsildar to find solution for the water crisis. Every individual must be given 40 litres of water everyday. Fodder and water for cattle and other domesticated animals is a must. The unemployed people must be given job. For all this, there are sufficient funds in the district administration.”
“I had directed the officials concerned about five months back to identify private borewells and make an agreement with the owners in order to lift water from there and distribute it to the areas affected by acute water crisis. None has done it”, he lambasted.
“DC has enough funds for digging deep borewells, extending pipelines and to draw agreements with the private borewell owners. These funds must be utilised judiciously. The government has issued a circular also in this regard. Let the water supply via tankers continue. But it should be made sure that all the water tankers are equipped with GPS, so that in case of any illegal business, the officials concerned will be held responsible”, he added.
“If there is any shortage of funds towards the supply of water, a letter must be written immediately to the urban development authority. Every Tahsildar will have Rs 15 Lakh in their treasury and in case of shortage of funds, they must write a letter to the DC and the funds will be released on the same day”, he said.
‘I know nothing about the cabinet expansion’
Reacting on the state coalition government’s cabinet expansion, Deshpande said, “Whether to expand or not, is the matter left to the party high command, I know nothing about it. “
“The Bharatiya Janata Party has won maximum number of seats in the general elections, which, we all have accepted. There is a need for the Congress party to introspect and learn a lesson from the mandate. I am not ready to accept the fact that it was only because of the state coalition between Congress-Janata Dal (S), that we suffered a major setback. In some constituencies, ground work was not done as expected”, he added.
On whether H D Kumaraswamy would continue as the chief minister or not, he clarified, “CM post is not vacant in the state and therefore there is no question of me becoming an aspirant for that seat. A collective decision has been taken in the cabinet expansion meeting that HDK will continue as the CM for the rest of the term.”
“No one till date, has come forward in support of me to make me a minister and if I am asked to step down, I’ll consider it as my resting period and relax”, he added.
