'Nagaland water supply project scaled down'

KOHIMA: Nagaland public health and engineering department minister N Jacob Zhimoni on Tuesday said the water supply project of Chiephozou block in Kohima district has been scaled down due to technical reasons.
Zhimoni said initially the project was meant to supply water to 24 villages but due to topography and other technical reasons it was not feasible. Therefore, the department has apprised the DoNER ministry and decided to do the work in a phased manner starting with 10 villages initially.
The other 14 villages will be covered through deep tubewells and proposals for additional requirements have been sent to the Union Jal Shakti Ministry, the minister said.
He added that the villagers were not informed about the change in the project, which led to misunderstanding as earlier in the day a large number of villagers demanded that all the 24 villages be covered under the project.
The Zhadima village council on Monday had submitted a representation to the principal secretary of the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) objecting to the commissioning of the project with only 10 villages.