WITH WATER crisis being felt before the onset of summer in the newly developed areas of Kolar Road, water availability will form a major plank in the ensuing Kolar municipality elections.
With no permanent water source in the area and the gradual dip in ground water — the only source colonies on this road are fully dependent on due to overdraw, the issue is sure to dominate the municipality polls.
Though the state government formed the Kolar Municipality, no initiatives are taken to ensure the water availability in this area.
Earlier, a large number of people were demanding inclusion of this area in the Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC). “The BMC has sufficient resources to ensure the availability of water in this area. The availability of water needs
expenditure worth crores. I suspect that a newly constituted municipality could redress the water crisis of this area,” said Ajay Chaturvedi, a resident of Matra Chhaya Apartment in sector A of Sarvardharma.
Chaturvedi could get water once in a week through the borewell of the apartment as the water level is going down despite good rains this year. Thus, each of 12 residents of this apartment could get the water once in a week. The residents said the problem is going to aggravate in the summer. Residents of other apartments in the vicinity also face similar problems and depend on the supply through tankers of private suppliers.
{{/usCountry}}Chaturvedi could get water once in a week through the borewell of the apartment as the water level is going down despite good rains this year. Thus, each of 12 residents of this apartment could get the water once in a week. The residents said the problem is going to aggravate in the summer. Residents of other apartments in the vicinity also face similar problems and depend on the supply through tankers of private suppliers.
{{/usCountry}}Another resident, Hemendra Joshi, said the state government should check the urbanisation of area until water is made available. Several big colonies were developed in this area during past one decade without making availability of water. Due to this overdrawl, there is an alarming dip in ground water level. However, the builders appear unconcerned about it and are still developing new colonies.
Earlier, the promises were made that the water availability would be ensured through the second phase of Kolar scheme. But, the scheme has not moved ahead an inch in the past four years. The government sources said that revival of this scheme could lead to legal problems.
The water of nearby Kaliasot Dam is also meant for the irrigation purpose. Kaliasot is not a reliable source of water as this dam fills only after the release of water from the Upper Lake.
The chairman of Kolar Municipality non-official steering committee ,Iqbal Patel, however, said that water would be made available through tankers in this area. He said municipality would purchase tankers and put up tanks in this area. Asked about the permanent availability of water, he said the state government has been making efforts in this direction.
Congress leader Pankaj Chaturvedi said the BJP MLA has been representing this area for the past 35 years but nothing was done to ensure the water availability here. “We don’t have faith in the present government. We are going to launch an awareness drive to encourage people to use the water harvesting device in buildings,” he added.