It was a walk down the memory lane for M. Ravi Kanth, Chairman and Managing Director of Housing and Urban Development Corporation Limited (HUDCO), when saw water flowing from the taps in Pothireddypally Gudem habitation near here on Saturday.
“I never drank safe drinking water all my childhood. The tank in our habitation in Palakollu, infested with algae and water hyacinth, was the year-long source of water. I’ve grown immune to all that,” he recalled.
On Saturday, Mr. Ravi Kanth along with a team of officials, including HUDCO State and regional heads, turned on the taps tasting water here, after visiting its source — off-take point at Akkampally Balancing Reservoir and filtration project at Kodandapur.
The Kodandapur segment of the Mission Bhagiratha — the State’s programme to provide safe and tapped drinking water to every household — supplies to 352 habitations in the area.
Major role
HUDCO, ‘Mini Ratna’ public sector undertaking that promotes sustainable habitat development, was one of the first ones to sanction a loan for Mission Bhagiratha. The ‘greenfield project’ was released ₹ 4,750 crore in two phases, say officials. And all the intake wells from the source point here were built from those funds.
“I always felt happy for my role as a Telugu man in sanctioning that loan. But witnessing development, in a fluoride-affected place like Nalgonda, which I didn’t experience as a child is very different,” Mr. Ravi Kanth said, interacting with residents of Pothireddypally Gudem.
Role model
He was all praise for the mega project Mission Bhagiratha and said the State government by fulfilling the basic need of safe drinking water soon will be a model for other states.
Interacting with the media, Mr. Ravi Kanth, a 1986-batch Kerala cadre IAS officer, recalled his association with The Hindu. “It used to cost 35 paise when I started reading The Hindu in 1979. Then, the paper was delivered at Andhra University in the afternoon, with the arrival of a train from Hyderabad. I think I owe my success to your newspaper,” he signed off and turned to interact with more residents in the village.
