‘BASUDHA Helpline 1916’ To Manage Water-Related Grievance In Odisha

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has launched ‘BASUDHA’ Helplines-1916- a dedicated grievance management initiative for rural water supply in the state.

He also unveiled the logo of ‘Buxi Jagabandhu Assured Drinking Water to all Habitation’.

“I hope rural people will get to record their complaints regarding the breakdown and non-functioning of projects. I would expect the department to take immediate follow up action on these grievances,” Naveen said.

The Chief Minister urged the department to speed up execution of the projects to achieve the goal of providing safe drinking water to all households in the rural areas of the state.

BASUDHA was launched in 2017-18 as a tribute to Buxi Jagabandhu in the bi-centenary year of Paika Rebellion with a budgetary outlay of Rs 600 crores in 2017-18 and Rs 1000 crores in 2018-19 financial year.

The objective of this initiative is to provide adequate safe water to rural people for drinking and domestic purposes on a sustainable basis.

To ensure that that the supplied water meets the necessary quality standards, 78 state-of-the-art water testing laboratories have been built across the state wherein more than five lakh samples are being tested in a year. The government has also adopted programme strengthening measures like the engagement of Authority Engineers and Third Party Quality Monitoring.

The helpline has been formed to receive complaints regarding drinking supply in rural areas between 6 am and 6 pm. The grievances will be addressed in time-bound manner, official sources said.