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| Locals peeved over abysmal attitude of PHE deptt | | Acute water crisis in Doda district | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Dec 21: Falsifying the claims of PHE minister Taj Mohiuddin, people of entire Doda district are agitated over severe water crisis that has hit the entire region forcing people to carry buckets to river Chenab for getting potable drinking water.
Water in entire Doda town has become a rarity while in the outskirts agitations over water scarcity have already started. If the locals are to be believed, PHE department has failed to provide requisite and safe drinking water to people in Doda and its adjoining areas. Locals said that their public representatives have failed to highlight their plight in the legislative assembly.
They disclosed that the MLAs and MLCs have failed to stem the highhandedness and irresponsible attitude of the PHE department. Locals further said that they do not have a drop of water to drink yet the minister only yesterday in the state assembly denied water crisis in Doda. Not only the town but in the adjoining areas also, protests have begun over water crisis. A massive protest was organised by people of village Shiva which is 10 kilometers from Doda city.
In Village Shiva which has 21 other villages in its vicinity, women are forced to track a distance of around 8 kilometers to get safe potable drinking water. Villagers allege that water crisis has damaged maize crop. They further said that they have to take animals to either Neeru River or Chinab for meeting their water requirements. Schools have also complained of water woes.
"For the past one month, residents of Doda have been demanding supply of drinking water but authorities are completely non-serious over the issue," said a local Babloo. But from Superintending Engineer to AE of the PHE department in Doda, none agreed to the claims of the people and instead claimed that they are meeting demand of the people. However, they could not explain the mechanism by which they were addressing the acute water scarcity.
"Our requirement is around 5 Lakh gallons and we are currently supplying 2 to 2.5 lakh gallons of water. This was sufficient for the people of Doda town but the recent migration of people from Pul Doda has compounded the problems," said an official. He added that 5 tankers have been pressed into the service to meet water requirements of Doda town.
When asked about the Dessa water supply scheme which was inaugurated by former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, the official blatantly lied and said that the scheme was meant for a particular area of Doda town. "The scheme was meant for Abramabad area of Doda town and not the entire city. Someone has given you wrong information," said the official.
However, official records bear testimony to the fact that Ex-Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed in November 2003 had inaugurated this water supply scheme (WSS). The scheme was shown in the official records as having the capacity of 1.25 lakh gallons per day. The officials had then told the then Chief Minister the scheme will benefit a population of 4,000 in the town. The project had been approved in the year 2002 during a cabinet-cum-district development board meeting chaired by then Chief Minister.
The scheme was completed at a cost of Rs. 80 lakh. But the scheme failed to augment the water requirements of Doda town since it was both ill-planned and technically ineffectual, said a senior official of PHE department. He added that the officials had actually misled the then Chief Minister about this scheme. "It is not a scheme but a scam since it has failed to meet water requirement of Doda town," added the official.
The residents are also annoyed over attitude of the local representatives who have been camping at Srinagar at the time when people have been confronting with the shortage of ration and water. Doda town is represented by two legislatures - Abdul Majid Wani, who is member of the Lower House, and Khalid Najeeb Suhrawardy, who is member of the Upper House. Despite being represented by two members, problems of the inhabitants of this town have been increasing with very passing day. |
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