BHOPAL: Criticising the state government's Nal Jal Yojana , the Opposition came down heavily on Kusum Mehdele, minister for public health engineering (PHE), saying that the programme to supply drinking water to rural areas has failed.During the State Assembly session's Question Hour, Congress MLA Lakhan Singh Yadav asked Mehdele for the number of villages where the project had been successfully implemented in his constituency in Gwalior. He also wanted to know the number of villages where the tap water supply under the said scheme was introduced but is not functional.In her reply, Mehdele said that there were 90 villages where the Nal Jal Yojana was introduced. She added that only nine of those were not functioning, out of which five were irreparable.Responding to Mehdele's claim, the Congress legislator said that in reality things were the "exact opposite"."There are 81 villages where the Nal Jal is not operating and only nine where it is functioning," he said.The minister, however, stood by her statements and said that 81 were working. In response, Yadav demanded that a committee be appointed for an inquiry into the same. He insisted he be a part of the committee but Mehdele said that the officials of the PHE department would probe into the issue.Meanwhile, Congress MLA from Raghogarh Jaivardhan Singh said that out of the 78 village panchayats in his constituency where Nal Jal lines were laid, only eight were functioning. Even BJP MLA Kuwar Singh Tekam from Dhauhani constituency said that the scheme was not working in his constituency.Leader of Opposition Ajay Singh urged that an urgent probe be made into the case.Eventually, Mehdele agreed to the constitution of a committee for a probe which would also include local MLAs.

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