Purulia, 10 June (H.S.): Due to excessive delays, multiple changes in the plan and land disputes, the work of the 'JICA' project in Purulia district did not start on time. There is also a constant debate on when the work will be completed. It was said that the trial run of the JICA project would start by March this year. People will get filtered drinking water. However, administration officials claimed that residents will still have to wait for about six months to get water from the JICA project. District Engineer of the Public Health Technical Department Sanat Adhikari said, The work of the JICA project is going on as a wartime activity. We are very optimistic about completing the work by November 30.
Notably, after the Trinamool government came to power, in 2013-14, a joint initiative of the Center and the state was taken to solve the drinking water problem in a vast area of Purulia district under the JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) project with the financial assistance of Japan. The design of the project also changed. The final approval for the project was received in early 2019. An allocation of Rs 1296 crore was made. It was decided that water would be drawn from the Mukutmanipur reservoir. It would then be filtered and supplied to five blocks in the south-eastern part of the district. According to the Public Health Department, drinking water will reach parts of Manbazar-1, Puncha, Barabazar and Purulia-1 blocks and the entire Arsha block.
A total of 92,027 families in 458 mouzas will get piped water from the project. A total of 42 overhead tanks have been built for this. Along with this, Purulia Municipality will also get about 12.92 million liters of water daily. Although Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee herself complained that the project was getting delayed, since then the project engineers are trying their best to complete the work by March 2025. The concerned department had also promised that the trial run would be done by March. But this did not happen. An engineer associated with the project said that the pipeline work is also almost complete. The work of drawing water from the Mukutmanipur reservoir is yet to be done. That work is going on day and night. Hopefully, we will be able to provide water from December.
A senior officer of the district administration said that the project work has started quite late due to encroachment on land. The work has been delayed by about 17-18 months. Also, during the piling of the Mukutmanipur reservoir, stones coming down are hampering the work. It is taking one and a half times more time than the scheduled time. Many times water has entered during piling and there has been trouble. Political experts question that if the JICA project is implemented, then people of a total of five blocks including Purulia city will benefit, but people of the remaining 15 blocks are still struggling with water shortage.
---------------
Hindusthan Samachar / Priyanka Pandey
