HYDERABAD: “No water, no entry for politicians asking for vote’. Large banners with these words were put up all across Khizra Enclave in Puppalaguda by residents protesting against their MLA Prakash Goud, MP Konda Vishweshwar Reddy and government authorities for failing to allot Manjeera water connections to the area.
The protestors, armed with empty water cans and banners, assembled in their colony and denied entry to all political parties contesting from Chevella Parliamentary constituency for not providing them with water for the last five years.
“There has not been one day in the last eight years I have lived here that I have gotten water supply. Almost all the other colonies located around in the area have been given water supply. Connections to our area have been delayed indefinitely. This matter has become a routine poll issue for political parties, but none of them have ever fulfilled their promises,” said a resident in the area. There are around 400 houses in the said location.
The protestors also said that the scarcity of water often reached such extreme levels in the summers that the residents were even forced to vacate the colony as soon as the bore wells ran dry. “The groundwater levels are extremely poor here. The bore wells dug up to 1000 feet also have no water. We have been forced to rely entirely on tankers from December,” added another resident.
The angry locals claim that they would not cast their vote this year. This is primarily because the colonies adjacent to them got their pipeline connections about a year ago. “The YSR Colony and Diamond Hill Colony have gotten water lines which pass right through our colony. We are being denied the same,” said Mohamed Rafeel, the colony president.
During the 2018 elections, the TRS party candidate Prakash Goud had promised to bring in water to these areas in six months time, however, there seems to be no progress.