‘TRS govt. has created artificial water scarcity’

TPCC working president Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka has accused the TRS government of systematically diluting the Comprehensive Protected Drinking Water (CPW) supply schemes in rural areas by starving them of requisite funds and depriving the staff of wages, for the past nine months.

Speaking to newsmen here on Sunday, Mr. Vikramarka came down on the TRS regime for making the CPW schemes either go defunct or function much below their original capacity to create “artificial water scarcity”. “The move is intended to project the Mission Bhagiratha scheme as an imperative necessity,” he charged.

He alleged that the State government was doling out crores of rupees to the contractors of its much-touted ₹50,000 crore scheme at a huge cost to the State exchequer while leaving the existing CPW schemes fund-starved.

The electricity bill dues of all the CPW schemes across the State have reached a whopping ₹600 crore, he said.

The staff manning the rural water supply schemes have been deprived of their salaries since August last year, he alleged.

We will strive to unite all the stakeholders against the apathy of the government towards the CPW schemes and wage a concerted movement to safeguard the public assets created decades ago to cater to drinking water needs of rural masses, Mr. Vikramarka said.