SAJID TUFAIL LONE
Bhadarwah June : Residents of Sartingal village in Bhadarwah on Sunday took to the streets protesting the shortage of water for the past few months. The villagers gathered on the Sartingal – Sharekhi Road as the area is the worst affected by the water crisis.
Residents mostly women blocked the Sartingal-Sharekhi road 5km from Bhadarwah town to protest against the non-availability of potable water supply in the area for months now.
The protesters including women alleged that the negligence of the authorities forced them to come on roads.
They raised slogans against state government officials for allegedly ignoring their repeated request to arrange water. As none of the civil administration officials responded to their calls for talks, the protesters broke pitchers on Sunday.
Articulating anger against the acute drinking water scarcity they have been grappling for over four months. The protestor raised slogans against PHE and administration saying that the officers of the department are apathetic towards the woe of the villagers. The women protestors warned administration that if the drinking water problem is not addressed in a day or two the villagers would start hunger strike along with their children.
According to protestors, despite the villagers having time and again appealed to the Jal Sansthan executive engineer, junior engineer and field officers to address their drinking water woe, nothing had happened.
“We are being forced to survive under severe water crisis since long but now we are running out of patience as we keep on moving from dawn to dusk to fetch water in gruelling heat and treacherous condition. Under these circumstances, we can not survive for long and if the water supply is not restored, the only option left with us is to go on hunger strike,” said Rabia Bano, a resident of Sartingal.
“On one hand government is assuring to provide safe drinking water to every soul under ‘Jal Shakti Abhiyan’ and has been also propagating to be part of ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’, on the other hand ground staff is making mockery of flagship schemes by denying people of potable water for months at a stretch,” said Ghulam Nabi (65) of Sartingal.
When contacted Xen PHE Doda, Ajay Gupta said, “I was not aware of the issue and will send my team headed by AEE there immidiately to cross check and will also visit there personally as the issue raised by the villagers is of very serious nature.”
“I assure you that the potable water supply to Sartingal village will be restored at the earliest and if any of our staff member is found guilty of dereliction of duty, that will be taken to task,” Officer added.
