Say department forcing them to consume contaminated water
Sajid Raina
Bandipora, Aug 22: Authorities in Jal Shakti department here have miserably failed to complete the Water Supply Scheme (WSS)—Ashtangou even after the elapsing of a decade, thus leaving the local residents to lurch at large.
The local residents while talking to the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) said that they are being forced to consume the filthy and contaminated water as the authorities have failed to construct the WSS since last over ten years.
Locals said that the construction of the Water Supply Scheme in Ashtangoou was started in the year 2010 by the Bandipora division of the then Public Health Engineering (PHE) department which has now been named Jal-Shakti department.
However, they said that the scheme is yet to be completed, thus has resulted in immense hardships to them. The locals said that they are being forced to consume contaminated water.
They said that the scheme was supposed to benefit around 500 households of the villages including Badiyara, Kanbethi, Ghat and Ashtangoou but the villagers have been left high and dry as the scheme is yet to be completed despite the passage of over 10 years.
“We are being forced to fetch dirty water from a nearby stream because there is no proper water supply in the area,” locals said, adding that despite approaching the district administration multiple times, nothing has been done in this regard.
The villagers alleged that a narrow pipeline was laid in the area that can’t even pump water from the source to the consumers. They said it seems that the pipeline was laid just to draw money from government exchequer and hoodwink the higher authorities.
They also said that Jal-Shakti department has left them on god’s mercy, adding that the department has miserably failed to provide drinking water to them.
The residents of the village earlier also staged a protest against the concerned department and demanded a probe into the alleged misappropriation of funds, meant for providing water supply to the inhabitants.
The villagers later appealed to the concerned authorities to pay attention towards their sufferings and ensure the water supply is provided to them without any further delay.
When contacted Executive Engineer Jal-Shakti division Bandipora, Abdul Khaliq Qureshi said that “I will look into the matter and will ask the concerned JE to address the problem at the earliest.”
He also assured that the scheme will be completed in a shortest possible time—(KNO)
