Daijiworld Media Network – Puttur (SP)

Puttur, May 19: Former municipal president and present councillor of the local municipality, Rajesh Bannur,  said that Karnataka Urban Development and Coastal Environment Management Project (KUDCEMP) has lied to the people in claiming that it has been supplying uninterrupted water to the residents of the town since the last five years. “The organization is trying to hoodwink the people by telling lies,” he charged.

“It may be recalled that KUDCEMP engineer, Rangaswamy, had said that the water supply project executed by the entity would be handed over to the municipality after addressing the problems it has been encounering. This apparently means that he agrees that there is a problem. At the same time, he has claimed to be supplying 24 hours of water every day to the town in three shifts, which is a false claim,” he added.

He said the facts and figures may present a picture that is far removed from the ground reality. He added that KUDCEMP has often been told that it has not been able to supply water as per needs, and water is not reaching the regions located at higher altitudes. “During the joint team inspection by municipality and KUDCEMP, these points were found to be true. KUDCEMP had promised to set right the problem, but has failed to do so,” he charged.

Rajesh claimed that the pipelines and tank design of KUDCEMP have inherent problems.  He said that the actual benefit of the scheme has not reached even 30 percent of beneficiaries, and accused KUDCEMP of releasing false claims through newspaper, although it knows that its project is error-prone. “During the joint survey, mistakes in execution of the plan were pointed out to KUDCEMP. It was told to stop leakages and close the gate. The municipality refused to take over the project, as these things were not attended to. Now, KUDCEMP claims there is no need to close the gate, which is a misleading statement,” he said.

He also challenged Rangaswamy, KUDCEMP engineer, to prove his allegation that false allegations were levelled against the project by people who are angry at entrusting the project to KUDCEMP. He said that the municipality is prepared for detailed investigation by any organization into all these facts, and that the municipality is prepared to take over operation of the project, if the firm so engaged for the purpose certifies that everything is fine, and that it can be taken over.