'Ghosts' halt Himachal water supply

Call it the fear of ghosts haunting the site or an excuse to avoid working in 'graveyard shift' but IPH employees refuse to run the water pump at night.

Taps run dry after dark in several villages of Himachal Pradesh only because no one is brave enough to operate the pumps that are situated next to a cremation ground.

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The Karjadi water supply scheme near Chintpurni in Una district, 230 km from Shimla, was launched in February at a cost of Rs.4 million. But only after a few days, the water supply was hit in the night as an Irrigation and Public Health (IPH) employee refused to run the water lifting pumps due to fear of ghosts.

"Something like stones are hurled into the air and sometimes there are human shrieks in the middle of the night," local media reports on Thursday quoting unnamed staffers of the state IPH department.

However, villagers dismiss this as an excuse by IPH staff to avoid working at night.