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| People forced to drink polluted water in Harsh Dev’s constituency | | None to take care of “Duct Tank” in Majalta | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Apr 16: This may sound like living in a primitive era and quite contrary to the tall claims of the PHE department to provide drinking water to the people of the state. Even as huge funds are spent on various schemes, for many disadvantaged, particularly the rural people, the situation on ground shows a different picture.
The natives of village ‘Kalay’ and its adjoining areas such as Manwal, Cahini, Thalora, Tajoor, and Thalora in the block Majalta in district Udhampur are forced to drink unhygienic and polluted water supplied from the ‘Duct Tank’ been constructed by the department to supply potable water to the villagers.
This tank was constructed almost a year ago at the cost of around 76 lakhs Rupees from the MLA’s Constituency Development Fund but huge expenditure has proved of no help rather increased the woes of the people of these villages. & nbsp;
The people of the area attribute the supply and consumption of polluted water to absence of any covering. To add to this , the waste water form adjoining cremation ground also finds way into it and gets accumulated in the said tank.
Locals are apprehensive that with increase in the temperature each passing day, there is danger of spread of an epidemic because of the consumption of dirty water. They also alleged that few months ago, people found a dead animal in this tank, and surprisingly water was supplied to the villagers even then and no one from the department bothered to look into the unhygienic supply of water.
When this correspondent visited the area for taking stock of the situation, no one was present at the ‘PHE pump station’ despite of the fact two employees are posted here for the purpose.Dozens of bags of ‘Bleaching powder’ were piled up in one of the two rooms and locals alleged that the department had never used the bleaching powder.
Interestingly, the area is represented in the Legislative Assembly by the ‘fiery’ leader of Jammu Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP) Harsh Dev Singh.
Locals preferring anonymity said that the work was done on the instance of Harsh Dev Singh, but in recent assembly elections, vote percentage was less than the previous elections, which is why the village is neglected by the concerned authorities at the behest of said legislature.
While talking to our correspondent Harsh Dev Singh refuted the allegations and said concerned PHE authorities were responsible for upkeep of the said Duct Tank and its supply.
When contacted, Chief Engineer PHE, Daleep Bakshi said that the matter was not in his knowledge.”Now the matter has came into his knowledge, I will see to it that contaminated supply is stopped immediately and steps taken to restore normal, drinking water supply”, he assured.
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