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.