To protest water crisis, 6 Sirsa villages to shun political parties

Deepender Deswal

Tribune News Service

Hisar, August 16

Residents of six villages in the Ellenabad Assembly segment in Sirsa district have decided to boycott all political parties, alleging that the successive governments had failed to resolve the shortage of water for drinking and irrigation purposes for nearly two decades.

Since May 28, the residents of Mithanpura, Karamshana, Dhani Shera, Khari Surera, Nimla and Dhani Sindhu villages have been sitting on a dharna in support of their demands. The villagers alleged that they had been facing perennial water shortage and they had taken up the issue with successive governments but to no avail.

Mithanpura village sarpanch Ramkumar Godara said the Shera Wali canal, the only source of water in the area, was not able to fulfil the needs of the population due to its low capacity. “There is some technical glitch. We had taken up the demand for another canal in the area, which the BJP-JJP government had approved. It even released a grant of Rs 16 crore for this purpose,” he added.

The sarpanch, however, said the proposal was shot down due to low capacity of water at the source. The grant was also reverted to the government, he said, adding that the work to clean the existing canal was then taken up and Rs 45 lakh was spent on it. “But it failed to increase the water capacity in the canal,” the sarpanch alleged.

Meanwhile, farm leader Ramesh Saharan said they had decided to boycott all political parties in the pending Ellenabad Assembly bypoll. “Political leaders will not be allowed to enter these villages for canvassing during the bypoll,” he added.