As summer heats up, the district administration has decided to form a monitoring committee to address the acute shortage of drinking water in various parts of Kollam.

According to public representatives, several constituencies including Kundara, Punalur, Kottarakara, Chadayamangalam, and Karunagapalli are facing severe distress and the issue was brought to the notice of the District Development Committee (DDC).

Minister KN Balagopal’s representative pointed out that water was not available to residents of Mylam from the Mylam-Talavur drinking water project, while MLA PC Vishnunath demanded immediate action to solve the water shortage in Kundra. Collector Afsana Parveen said that all demands related to completion of drinking water projects, repair of motors of pump houses and cleaning of drinking water sources would be considered.

The representative of MLA, PS Supal demanded that English medium should be approved in Koovakadu, Nedumbara and Kelankavu Tamil medium schools in Punalur constituency. Resolving disputes with the Forest Department to implement development projects on revenue land allotted to Thenmala Depot was another appeal from the constituency.

Representative of MP NK Premachandran said that KSEB should expedite the proceedings related to Punalur-Shencottah railway electrification. He also demanded that the estimate of the approach road for the Kundara-Elampallur railway overbridge should be prepared at the earliest.

Completion of Nellikunnam-Plalapalli road, ensuring that financial assistance to dependents of COVID-19 victims is not disrupted due to technical reasons, and overseeing hospital maintenance committee meetings in rural parts were also among the issues raised in the DDC meeting . Kodikunnil Suresh, MP’s representative Abraham Samuel said there were problems in disbursement of MNREGA wages [Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme] staff. The Collector said that the salary disbursement was being affected due to technical issues related to Aadhaar linking and photo updation and steps have been taken to resolve the issue. District Planning Officer PJ Amina, ADM Bina Rani, Deputy Collector Vimal Kumar and other district level officers participated in the meeting.