Govt out to activate rural water projects
BHUBANESWAR: The state government has asked all district collectors to identify rural piped water supply (RPWS) projects that are not functioning due to failure in electricity supply and take steps to activate them. Principal secretary of rural development department C J Venugopal and secretary of energy department P K Jena in a joint letter sent to the collectors recently stated that the state government gave top priority to provide safe drinking water to all habitations through piped water supply schemes. The rural water supply and sanitation organization over the years installed many such projects in the state. "However it is quite discouraging that several of these projects are not functioning due to failure in supply of electricity," the letter said. The letter said, "in view of the importance of these projects, it is necessary to keep them operational". It stressed that district collectors should organize meetings at regular intervals of the department concer