Deputy Commissioner K.G. Jagadeesha on Monday directed urban local bodies and taluk administrations to open round-the-clock helpline service in their jurisdiction to attend to drinking water problems immediately.

Presiding over a meeting on addressing drinking water requirements during the summer here, Mr. Jagadeesha said that complaints about drinking water should be solved within 24 hours.

If, for any reason, people resort to protests for non-availability of drinking water, the officer concerned in the gram panchayat or the urban local body would be held responsible, he said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Jagadeesha also directed officials concerned to completely stop fodder transportation either from Dakshina Kannada or through Dakshina Kannada to neighbouring Kerala in view of the severe drought. He asked officials to take up as many works as possible under employment guarantee scheme in Bantwal and Mangaluru taluks which have been declared drought-hit.

Zilla Panchayat Deputy Secretary N.R. Umesh said that though the government has lifted the blanket ban on sinking of borewells by individuals in Mangaluru, Bantwal, Belthangady and Sullia taluks, obtaining no objection certificate from the local body concerned is mandatory. Also, such borewells should not be within 500 m of any public drinking water source, he said.