Minister, PHED Rihon Daimary inaugurates piped water supply schemes in Hailakandi

Dec.5: Minister for Public Health Engineering, Rihon Daimary inaugurated two multi village piped water supply schemes here on Tuesday. Minister Daimary inaugurated the Greater Sheralipur Multi Village Piped Water Supply Scheme and Kalinagar-Panchgram Multi Village Piped Water Supply Scheme at two separate programmes in the presence of Minister for Environment and Forest, Parimal Suklabaidya, MP, Kripanath Mallah, Deputy Commissioner, Megh Nidhi Dahal and other dignitaries.

The Sheralipur Multi Village Piped Water Supply Scheme 2012-13 built at an estimated cost of Rs.1688.95 lakh covers 30.50 km of 18 villages under Koiya-Ramchandi and Tantoo-Dhanipur Gaon Panchayats with a total 31 habitations comprising 19,463 population of 4,784 households. The Kalinagar-Panchgram Multi Village Piped Water Supply Scheme 2013-14 constructed at a cost of Rs.840.16 lakh has a total network distribution of 18 km covering 12 villages under Panchgram and Kalinagar Gaon Panchayats with a population of 15,233 comprising 4,784 households.

Speaking as chief guest at the inaugural programmes, Minister Daimary said that the state government has accorded top priority to provide access to safe drinking water to the people of the state and has set 2024 as the target for providing piped drinking water for all under the Jal Jeevan Mission envisioned by Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. The Minister said the state has become almost free from arsenic and fluoride water with more and more people getting access to safe drinking water.

The Minister appealed to the people covered by the piped water supply schemes to contribute from their end and the panchayat representatives to get involved for their proper operation and maintenance. “The government has built the piped water supply projects and have handed them over to the people who have to shoulder the overall responsibility of their operation and maintenance by contributing something from their end and to form a users’ committee for hassle-free functioning,” he quipped.

Daimary said 50 per cent funds from the 15th Finance Commission Award have been earmarked for piped water supply schemes in rural areas. Daimary announced that the PHED would built individual household latrine toilet for every poor family at a cost of Rs 12,000.

Minister for Environment and Forest, Parimal Suklabaidya said the present government has taken up a slew of initiatives to provide piped water supply to the households, cooking gas, electricity and other facilities. MP, Kripanath Mallah also gave an account of the pro poor initiatives taken up by the state government, including piped water supply connection.

Deputy Commissioner, Hailakandi, Megh Nidhi Dahal, who presided over the programmes, urged the people who have benefited from the piped water supply schemes to actively involve themselves and to look after their operation and maintenance. MLA, Katlicherra, Sujamuddin Laskar, MLA, Algapur, Nizamuddin Choudhury, former Minister, Gautam Roy, OSD to CM, Shekhar Dey, Superintending Engineer, PHED, Nipendra Kumar Sharma and BJP District President, Swapan Bhattacharjee were present on the occasion.