PATNA: Urban development and housing department minister Samrat Chaudhury informed the state assembly on Thursday that due to leakage in water supply pipelines, Patnaites occasionally get polluted drinking water. Replying to a starred question of Nitin Navin (BJP), the minister said the pipelines in the state capital had become worn out and needed replacement. He said the Bihar Urban Infrastructure Development Corporation (Buidco) was assigned the task of replacing the pipelines and it had entered into an agreement with the Gammons India Limited. The pipelines had leakages at some places and at a few places, they were totally damaged. He said he would personally review the drinking water supply plan for the state capital. Navin said the pipelines had leakages at 690 points and crores of litres of water were wasted. Plugging these leakages required only Rs 8 lakh, but the government was not providing it, he said. There was no maintenance of borings either. The minister said three gangmen were appointed by the Water Board to repair the leakages, which the members described as too few. Leader of opposition Nand Kishore Yadav said the minister had told the House last week that the work of Gammons India Limited was unsatisfactory and its contract would be terminated. The firm was expected to lay distribution pipelines in all the 72 wards, but only in 18 wards pipelines were laid. The company did not set up any water treatment plant or built any new water tower. Replying to a question of Kumar Shailendra (BJP), agriculture minister Narendra Singh requested the member to ask Bhagalpur DM to send a demand letter to the state government seeking return of Rs 15.51 lakh which was surrendered by the district administration. The money had been sent to the DM on December 13 last year to compensate farmers for the loss of crops due to Phailin cyclone which hit the banana growers of Bhagalpur in November last year. Explaining the situation, the minister said Bihpur block in Bhagalpur district was sans a BDO till March 31 this year. The DM had asked the CO to take charge as BDO but it was not permitted by the Election Commission due to Lok Sabha elections. Since BDO was to be the nodal officer for distribution of money, the allocation remained unspent and lapsed.