The Hindu 27.05.2013
Meeting today to chalk out steps to mitigate water crisis
Rs. 40 crore released to urban local bodies to lessen the problem.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will chair a high-level
meeting of deputy commissioners of all districts and chief executive
officers of zilla panchayats on Monday to chalk out steps to mitigate
drinking water crisis in the State.
Mr. Siddaramaiah
announced this at a press conference after a meeting with Unique
Identification Authority of India chairman Nandan Nilekani here on
Sunday.
A large number of villages, towns and cities
in the State, including Bangalore and Mysore, are facing severe drinking
water crisis following the depletion of storage in various reservoirs.
Other participants
Minister
for Major and Medium Irrigation M.B. Patil, Minister for Rural
Development and Panchayat Raj H.K. Patil, Minister for Municipalities
and Local Bodies Qamar-ul-Islam and MLAs from Bangalore will also attend
the meeting.
The State government has released Rs.
40 crore to urban local bodies to arrange for drinking water supply in
the affected areas till the onset of monsoon.
Glitches aplenty
Mr.
Siddaramaiah discussed problems being faced by people in Aadhaar
enrolment centres, particularly in Bangalore, with Mr. Nilekani.
There
were several glitches in the enrolments process and long queues and
absence of qualified staff result in delays at several centres, he said.
The
enrolment centres — Bangalore has 412 run by four private agencies —
had not kept pace with the spike in the demand for Aadhaar
registrations. The Chief Minister said more centres would be opened in
Bangalore to expedite the enrolment process by the year-end.
The Aadhaar-linked Direct Benefit Transfer scheme for cooking gas will be rolled out in Mysore and Tumkur districts from June 1.
