Udupi (The HIndu): The issue of drinking water scarcity dominated the general body meeting of Udupi City Municipal Council (CMC) here on Friday.

Raising the issue, Yashpal Suvarna, councillor, said that the CMC had announced that it would be supplying water to the city on alternate days. But water had not been supplied in some areas for four or five days.

The people in those areas were asking why they were not getting water on alternate days, he said.

P. Yuvaraj, councillor, said that the tradition of supplying water on alternate days to tide over the summer crisis had started when the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was in power in the CMC. The Congress had come to power just four years ago, he said.

Raghavendra, CMC Environment Engineer, said that water storage in the Baje Dam was poor when compared to last year.

The amount of water available at the dam on March 30, 2017 was 3.31 metres.

But last year, the water-level in the dam reached the 3.31-metre mark on April 24. At present, 15 million litres of water per day (mld) was being pumped from the Baje Dam so that water in the reservoir lasts till at least June 5. The daily requirement was 23 mld, he said.

K. Ganesh, Assistant Executive Engineer, said that the CMC had installed four telephone helplines to deal with water complaints.

As many as 70 complaints were received and all of them were attended to, he said.

Prashanth Amin, councillor, said that the CMC should cut off water supply to the neighbouring gram panchayats, when the city was suffering from water scarcity.

D. Manjunathaiah, CMC Commissioner, said that the CMC had to give water to the gram panchayats en route and also to Bommarbettu Gram Panchayat because water was being lifted from a pit in the Swarna river-bed at Mane Bridge coming under the panchayat limits.

Alevoor Gram Panchayat had to be provided water as the Solid Waste Management Plant of the CMC was located there.

The CMC was holding talks with the Bommarbettu Gram Panchayat urging it to provide 70 % of water near Mane Bridge, while the rest could be used by the latter, he said.

Meenakshi Bannanje, CMC president, said that a special CMC meeting would be held at 3 p.m. on Saturday on the water issue alone.

Earlier, there were heated exchanges over the words used by both the ruling Congress and the BJP councillors and Ms. Bannanje had to struggle to bring the House to order.