Gherao at IMC office to protest water shortage

SCORES OF irate residents, including women and the elderly, today gheraoed the Vijay Nagar zone office for over two hours to protest irregular water supply.

SCORES OF irate residents, including women and the elderly, today gheraoed the Vijay Nagar zone office for over two hours to protest irregular water supply.

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The protestors dispersed only after Mayor-in-Council (MiC) waterworks in-charge Munnalal Yadav assured that their grievances would be redressed at the earliest. Nearly 200 residents, mostly inhabitants of Sukhlia, gathered at the Vijay Nagar zone office around 10 am to vent anger at being denied their quanta of water.

The protestors charged that water scarcity in the area persisted even after the construction of the Sukhlia overhead tank (OHT), as the internal connections weren’t yet functional.

The problem was compounded by the frequent power cuts that prevented supply through tankers from the local hydrant, they added.

The agitated residents, mostly inhabitants of Sukhlia, initially brushed off Yadav who arrived at the zone office to calm things down. The MiC member tried to explain that the IMC was going through a cash crunch and this had prevented work at the Sukhlia tank from being completed.

The protestors, however, were in no mood to hear about the Corporation’s fiscal woes. “We pay our taxes and the Corporation is duty-bound to supply water to us whether or not it has the money,” declared the agitated residents. The protestors included residents of ward 10, represented by Yadav, who is often accused of siphoning off water meant for elsewhere to feed his constituents.

“The demand cannot be fulfilled, however, as the colony has been built by illegally occupying ITI land and the court has already ruled in the latter’s favour,” he pointed out.“At any rate I asked them to write to the Commissioner, as providing Narmada connections is an issue that is handled by the IMC headquarters and not at the zone office level,’’ Yadav concluded.