The Hindu 04.11.2009
Chitradurga residents urged to take water connections from CMC
Staff Correspondent
| Government has stopped installing public taps, says Deputy Commissioner |
Inspection: Deputy Commissioner Amlan Aditya Biswas walking through Jhatpatnagar in Chitradurga city on Tuesday.
Chitradurga: Deputy Commissioner Amlan Aditya Biswas has asked city residents to take their own water connections from the Chitradurga City Municipal Council as the Government has stopped installing public taps in the city.
Mr. Biswas, who visited some areas in the city on Tuesday following complaints of the lack of basic facilities, told the residents of Jhatpatnagar that it was not possible to install public taps, but promised that two small tanks would be built to store water. He instructed CMC Commissioner Vijay Kumar to begin the work immediately and promised funds from the district administration’s rain damage fund.
The residents who had gathered to express their grouses said that the CMC charged Rs. 7,500 a connection, a sum that poor people could ill-afford and expressed the need for a public tap. When Mr. Biswas sought a clarification from Mr. Kumar, the latter said that the total expense could not go beyond Rs. 3,000. The residents must have approached middlemen for water connections, he said and urged the residents to instead approach the CMC directly.
The residents then agreed to pay Rs. 3,000 each and a local leader has been asked to list the residents seeking a connection and accordingly submit an application to the CMC.
During his visit, Mr. Biswas discovered that many of the residents had built their houses right on the sewage line, creating obstructions for maintenance work.
Mr. Kumar expressed his helplessness in these getting such illegal encroachments cleared. “Every time we try to clear them, we get calls from influential people to stop it,” he said.
Dharna
Before Mr. Biswas’ visit, several members of the Karnataka Slum Dwellers’ United Association staged a dharna in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office demanding basic amenities in the slums. They also demanded “hakku patra” for the dwellers.
