Residents to get 20-litre cans at Rs. 12; novel project to boost local body’s income

Amidst the growing popularity of packaged drinking water, Mudichur panchayat near Tambaram has ventured into a novel project of supplying purified water in 20-litre cans at a subsidised price to its residents. The panchayat will soon begin distributing water that has been purified in a reverse osmosis plant and packaged in 20-litre cans. The cans will be supplied at Rs. 12 against the retail price of a maximum of Rs. 30.

Collector wells of the scheme energised on Thursday

All the three collector wells on the Coleroon river and the common sump of the Rs.221.42-crore new drinking water augmentation scheme were energised on Thursday, paving the way for supply of water from the scheme by this month end ahead of the peak summer season. Describing it as an important step forward in the project, corporation officials said they were on course now to meet the assurance given earlier that pumping of water from the scheme would begin by March 31.

PUNE: The number of villages and hamlets in the state facing water and fodder scarcity has increased by 850 after the first week of February.

In the first week of February, 5,294 villages and hamlets were facing severe water scarcity. The number has now increased to 6,153. The number of tankers supplying drinking water to villages and hamlets has also increased from 1,730 in the first week of February to 2,136 by the first week of March, said a senior revenue officer.

Hyderabad: Irrespective of the quantity of water they get, residents of the Secunderabad Cantonment will have to pay Rs 315 per month towards water bills from the month of May, as against Rs 145 they are paying now.

The Board, comprising elected representatives of the people, has approved the more than 100 per cent hike and Board’s president Brigadier Sunil S. Bodhe signed it into law on March 5.

Chandy, team to put the demand before Prime Minister

Kerala, facing a searing drought, will urge the Centre to sanction it a special Rs. 4,000-crore relief package. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and his Cabinet colleagues will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with the request during their visit to Delhi on Monday and Tuesday.

Promises action on Tribunal order

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday assured a delegation of DMK MPs here that he would hold discussions with Union Water Resources Minister Harish Rawat on the setting up of Cauvery Management Board (CMB) and Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC), as ordered by the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT), in its final order to guarantee its strict compliance.

The Gujarat government on Tuesday tabled an irrigation Bill in the Assembly which seeks to make it compulsory for farmers to get a licence to draw water from canal or ground well beyond a certain limit and prescribes penal action, including imprisonment, against the errant farmers.

The Bill also seeks to charge farmers for irrigation water reaching any cultivated land within 200 metres of a canal either by percolation or leakage, surface flow or by means of a well-sunk from the canal.

Flat Dwellers Left High and Dry As Tankers Set To Go On Strike Today

Kochi: With the proposed tanker strike from Tuesday set to worsen the already irregular water supply in the city and nearby areas, apartments are all set to introduce rationing to reduce consumption. The Ernakulam district drinking water transporters welfare association had called the strike in protest against the decision of Thiruvanniyur and Chottanikkara grama panchayats not to allow tankers to collect water from areas like Thiruvanniyur, Kunnappilly, Vandipetta, Asupathripadi, Kureekkad and Pallath.

The Kerala Water Authority (KWA) Staff Association, affiliated to the INTUC, has urged the State government to pass a legislation to bring the conservation of water sources under the hands of the authority to address the worsening shortage of drinking water in the recent years.

The demand, made in a resolution at the State council meeting held here at the 14th State convention of the association that concluded here on Sunday, said majority of water sources in the State were increasingly getting polluted and as such the KWA should be entrusted with the task of preserving the water sources to ensure that water distribution was made even more transparent.