UP lacks action plan to tackle water shortage: BJP

Expressing concern over shortage of drinking water in Uttar Pradesh, opposition BJP today said the state lacked the action plan to tackle the problem of water shortage and a large number of handpumps are lying defunct due to government apathy.
"There is acute crisis of clean drinking water in the state and a large number of handpumps are lying defunct, but the government neither has proper arrangement for repair work nor any action plan," BJP chief spokesperson Vijay Bahadur Pathak said.
Pathak demanded Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav to intervene so that all the defunct tubewells and handpumps could be repaired at the earliest.

He said that the government has given 100 new handpumps each to the MLAs and district presidents, but they were "least concerned about reparing the defunct handpumps and tubewells."
"In Lucknow itself more than 3,000 handpumps are lying defunct and have not been rebored," Pathak said.
He said the reports of contaminated water supply were also coming.
"The situation is such that even in the state capital contaminated water is being supplied in several localities," he said.
Pathak demanded that the government should take concrete steps in this matter and implement an action plan to check the supply of contaminated water.