JAGATSINGHPUR: Taking up the cudgels for safe drinking water, women of Zillanasi and Mallashai panchayats in Kujang block of the district on Wednesday prevented Jagatsinghpur MP Rajashree Mallick and Paradip MLA Sambit Routray from leaving the area unless their problem was solved. Both the leaders were at Zillanasi to inaugurate a bridge.
The protestors said the villages in the panchayats have been reeling under acute water scarcity since Independence. The women in the panchayats walk kilometres daily to fetch water from nearby sources for meeting their needs. A few villages in the panchayats have tubewells but the saline and contaminated water pumped out of them is unfit for consumption.
Sources said the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation department had laid a pipeline to supply water to the villages from Taladanda canal. But now the canal has been rendered useless as it is filled with weeds. Earlier, the villagers had sought the intervention of elected representatives and officials concerned to resolve the crisis but in vain. The women called off their protest after the MP and legislator assured them that their demands will be met.