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Anti-water theft squads to be formed in all districts

Our Bureau

Thiruvananthapuram, July 24

A Bill to prevent misuse and pilferage of drinking water would be introduced in the next session of the Assembly, the Water Resources Minister, Mr N.K. Premachandran, said in the Kerala Assembly on Tuesday.

Replying to questions, the Minister said that a study by the Centre for Water Resources Development and Management had found that water in 85 per cent of the wells in the State was polluted. All the panchayats would be provided kits to test the purity of drinking water, he added.

Mr Premachandran said that anti-water theft squads would be formed in all the districts in the State. Such squads were already in place in Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi.

The Kerala Water Authority (KWA) would set up a mineral water bottling plant at Aruvikkara near Thiruvananthapuram, he said in reply to another question.

The Local Administration Minister, Mr Paloli Mohammed Kutty, told the House that all local self-government institutions (LSGIs) had been instructed to give top priority to solid waste management.

He said that most of the LSGIs had already identified land for establishing treatment plants. The Government would extend all assistance for setting up such plants.

In reply to a question, the Minister said that LSGIs had not been given powers to interfere in the academic affairs of the schools that had been handed over to them following decentralisation.

The institutions would take care of only the infrastructure issues of the schools, he added.

More Stories on : Water | Policy | Kerala

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