SHIMLA: ‘Har Ghar Ko Jal’ slogan of Jal Shakti department and SJPNL sounds hollow in 10 villages around Bakhelti , Fagu and Galu area, where thousands of hapless villagers are getting water once or twice in a month!
Instead, the villagers are compelled to purchase the Jal for drinking and other domestic purposes for their survival in Bakhelti-Fagu-Galu belt, which is just 20 kms from the state capital of Shimla.
As the SJPNL and Jal Shakti department remain indifferent to the water woes of the villagers, Theog CPM MLA Rakesh Singha and Dr Kuldip Singh Tanwar, President of Himachal Kisan Leader from Kasampiti and some villagers today resorted to Satyagrah.
They took their lock, stock and barrel and staged dharna inside the SJPNL office from today till the SJPNL and Jal Shakti department supply regular water in the villages that fall in Bani, Makhrol, Dehna, Dhamandari and Manjhar gram panchayats.
What is shocking for villagers is that the Shimla Jal Prabandh Nigam Ltd(SJPNL) runs its Rising main Giri water supply through these villages to the residents of the Shimla city.
All pleas of the villagers for getting some 250000 ltr of water from the Giri scheme have fallen on deaf ears of the Jal Shakti and SJPNL, said Dr Tanwar.
“Jal Shakti Vibhag is discriminating against the villagers while distributing water at various places”, Dr Tanwar Charged.
Ironically, SJPNL has given a direct water supply from Rising Main , of Giri-Shimla water supply to very influential Hotelier of that area, the villagers charged.
But people, who have the first right to get water from the local catchment has been denied water, which reeks of corruption and double standards", charged the agitated villagers.
The protestors have urged public to participate in Dharna till the villagers get water, which is the basic and fundamental necessity for life.