Bhubaneswar, November 17: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik unveiled the logo of Buxi Jagabandhu Assured Drinking Water to all Habitations (BASUDHA) scheme at the secretariat here on Saturday.

The Chief Minister also launched BASUDHA Helpline-1916— a dedicated grievance management initiative for rural water supply in the state for the public.

“I hope rural people will get access to record their complaints regarding breakdown and non-functioning of projects. I would expect the Panchayati Raj department to take immediate follow-up action on these grievances,” the CM said.

He asked the department to gear up the execution of the projects to achieve the goal of providing safe drinking water to all households in the rural areas of the state.

BASUDHA scheme was introduced during 2017-18 as a tribute to Buxi Jagabandhu in the bi-centenary year of Paika rebellion with a budgetary outlay of Rs 600 crore in 2017-18 and Rs1000 crore in 2018-19 financial year.

The aim of the scheme was all households will have access to use safe and adequate drinking water within a reasonable distance, enabling the communities to monitor and keep surveillance on their drinking water sources, ensure portability, reliability, sustainability, convenience and equity.

In the last 18 months Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water Department has taken up 4200 new piped water supply projects and 65 mega piped water supply projects with an outlay of over Rs 10,500 crores. Similarly, over 3000 solar dual pumps have been installed.