"With the start of summer season, water crisis has deepened across the state, but no concrete step has been taken by the government in this direction," party spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak said while talking to reporters here.
He claimed that a large number of handpumps installed by the government were lying defunct and even big cities like Lucknow, Meerut and Varanasi were facing acute crisis.
"Situation is worse in Bundelkhand region and more than 80 per cent handpumps are non-functional across the state," he said.
Pathak said 400 handpumps and two tubewells in Meerut were awaiting repair, while 351 handpumps in Varanasi and 176 handpumps in Gorakhpur were non-operational.
Even handpumps installed at public places like roadways, railway stations, hospitals, courts and schools are not working, he said, adding, there was an urgent need to repair these keeping in view the difficulties faced by people in the hot season.
The BJP leader claimed that apart from handpumps, water lines have been damaged at a number of places due to development works carried out under JNNURM.
The government is busy highlighting its achievements, but no action on a sensitive issue like this is being taken by the "inactive" government, he said.
