Mangaluru: In order to mitigate the drinking water problems, the state government has withdrawn the restriction on using grants under the 14th Finance Commission for drinking water purposes.

Earlier, there was a restriction that only 25 per cent of the grant could be used for drinking water purposes. Now that the restrictions have been withdrawn, local administrations can use as much of the grant as they need for any drinking water-related infrastructure developments.

Dakshina Kannada district in-charge minister and member of the state committee constituted to address the drinking water problems U T Khader told reporters at the Circuit House on Monday, February 4, that the government has already released Rs 1 crore to each of the 100 drought-hit taluks, Rs 50 lakhs each to 62 taluks and Rs 25 each to 14 taluks. “The Dakshina Kannada district also comes under the drought-hit taluks and each taluk of the DK district will be given Rs 50 lakh,” he said.

Responding to a query on the shortage of sand, Khader said, “A total of eight Gram Panchayats of the Puttur and Sullia taluks were identified, where the Gram Panchayats can give permission to the contractors to extract sand from the rivers. The tendering process has already been done to extract sand from the Thumbay vented dam, which can be used to construct government buildings,” he said.

Congress leaders Mohammed Monu, AC Vinay Raj, Mamatha Gatti and Ishwar Ullal were also present.