Jawali villagers protest against water shortage

Nurpur, March 26

Miffed over erratic piped water supply to Kothibanda gram panchayat of the Jawali assembly constituency in Kangra district, 150 residents from seven villages held a protest at Jawali and staged a dharna outside the divisional office of the Executive Engineer, Jal Shakti Department, today.

With taps running dry for days, the residents of Dhandu, Dhaniyar, Deol, Bassa, Amanni, Babalhad and Kanglahad villages, raising slogans, came in a procession to the Divisional Office of the Jal Shakti Department. They also staged a dharna outside the office to protest against the erratic water supply to their villages.

The villagers submitted a memorandum to the SDM and XEN. They warned that if department failed to streamline water supply in their village within next two days, they would bring empty utensils and gherao the Jal Shakti Department office.

The panchayat affected by water shortage is in the Jawali Assembly segment represented by Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Minister Chander Kumar.

The irate villagers told the XEN, Jal Shakti Division, Jawali, that they had complained to the Assistant Engineer of the Department at Kotla earlier, but to no avail. They lamented that they were getting piped water after 10 to 15 days that too in low pressure.

XEN Ajay Sharma said the villagers had met him, but he was not aware of their problem earlier. “To address the issue, a Junior Engineer and an Assistant Engineer of the area have been called. One gravity water supply scheme in this area was damaged during the monsoon and a tender has been awarded tfor the restoration of the scheme,” he said.