CUTTACK: Residents of Samal Sahi and Shabar Sahi of Barang’s Patapur village on Monday staged dharna on the Trisulia-Banki road here in protest against the alleged apathy of the local administration in solving the long-standing drinking water crisis in their areas.
Placing pots and pitchers on the road, over 100 families from the two hamlets blocked the road shouting slogans, which resulted in traffic disruption for over an hour. They alleged that they had been facing drinking water crisis for a long time, especially during summers, but the administration paid no heed to their woes.
“Though there is a tube well in the village, its water is unfit for consumption as it has high concentration of iron. The administration had made provision for pipeline water supply to our hamlets from a one lakh litre capacity water tank set up under Vasundhara scheme in a nearby area but the problem continues to persist as supply is irregular. As a result, we have to walk all the way to Bentakarpada village, located 1 km away, daily for collecting water,” they complained.
The villagers alleged they had apprised the issue to the local representatives as well as the block administration but nothing has been done in this regard.
On getting information, Barang IIC Debendra Biswal and Zone-4 ACP Amitabh Mohapatra rushed to the spot and tried to convince the agitating villagers to call off their protest but to no avail.
Later, executive engineer, RWSS, Sangya Sagarika Swain reached the spot and assured them of providing clean drinking water to every family in the village through tankers in the initial stage. She informed them that eventually, they would be provided water from a mega drinking water supply project under construction at Mundali.
Satisfied with Swain’s assurance, the villagers called off the agitation but warned they would resort to protest again if the promises were not fulfilled.