GULBARGA: Deputy Commissioner Anjum Parvez has convened a high-level meeting on Saturday to discuss the drinking water supply situation in Gulbarga city. He has invited senior leaders, including former Minister S.K. Kanta, who is spearheading an agitation for daily supply of drinking water to the city.

Mr. Kanta, who heads the Gulbarga Neeru Mathu Nagara Nairmalya Horata Samiti, organised a demonstration in front of the Deputy Commissioner's office on Thursday against what he called artificial scarcity of drinking water. He had blamed the Gulbarga City Corporation and the district administration for the situation.

In a letter to Mr. Kanta, the Deputy Commissioner said the meeting would begin at his office at 11 a.m. to discuss the issue of drinking water shortage.

The contention of Mr. Kanta was that the two drinking water sources — the Bhima and the Bennethora — had copious storage of water and if water supply is managed properly there should not be any shortage of water and that residents should get water every day. However, Mr. Kanta alleged that repair of the pipeline from the Bennethora to the city had been taken up by the Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Drainage Board now depriving the city of 1.5 million gallons of water a day drawn from the Bennethora.

The board, which had promised to plug leaks in the Bennethora by the end of March, is yet to complete work and resume lifting water. Similarly, the full quantity of 5.5 million gallons of water a day was not being drawn from the Bhima due to technical reasons.

Mr. Kanta said an artificial scarcity of drinking water had been created to enable the powerful lobby of contractors supplying drinking water through tankers.

Last summer, the city corporation had spent Rs. 1.29 crore for transportation of water through tankers.

Mr. Kanta had also criticised the timing of the district administration to empty the Sharanabasaveshwar Tank and take up work to remove silt during summer and pointed out that this had resulted affected many borewells.

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