Urban News

The Hindu      01.06.2010

Water scarcity dominates Council meeting

Special Correspondent

— Photo: D. Gopalakrishnan

Serious issue:P. Karthikeyan, Mayor and T.A. Mohammed Sadique, Deputy Mayor, at the meeting of the Vellore Corporation Council in Vellore on Monday.

VELLORE: The acute drinking water scarcity in Vellore dominated question hour at the monthly ordinary meeting of the Vellore Corporation Council presided over by P. Karthikeyan, Mayor of Vellore at the Corporation Council Hall here on Monday.

R. Arunachalam (Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam), 30th ward councillor, said that the residents of his ward were getting water only once in 10 to 13 days, and that too only for about one hour. Each household does not get even 10 pots of water, he said.

The MDMK councillor wanted the Corporation to take stringent action against those who used motors illegally to draw water from the Corporation taps. The tail-end areas did not get any water because of the residents who illegally used electric motors to pump water, he said.

N.A. Balasundaram (Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam), 11th ward councillor urged the Mayor and the officials of the Vellore Corporation to visit the various wards, see for themselves the difficulties faced by the people in view of the drinking water scarcity, hear their grievances and solve their problems.

P.P. Jayaprakash (Congress) said that two borewells in his ward had gone into disrepair. He wanted to know what steps the Corporation had taken to increase the capacity of the overhead tanks in the Corporation.

The Mayor said four additional borewells had been dug in the Otteri lake to the augment the drinking water supply to Vellore. Four more borewells would be dug in Otteri, he said.

G. Gopi alias Gopalakrishnan (MDMK) said that private traders in water were illegally pumping water from the Kagitha Pattarai area and selling water to the residents in different parts of Vellore. This has resulted in the drying up of nearly 7000 to 8000 borewells in the Kagitha Pattarai area. The government should take action to prevent the illegal pumping of water by private traders, he said.

The Mayor said that the Corporation would face a greater problem if the trade in water were to be curbed. It helped people who could afford to pay for the water to buy it if they faced scarcity, he said.

Mr. Gopi argued that it was the duty of the government and the Corporation to identify new sources and supply water to the residents free of cost, and not allow illegal trade in water.

Mr. Jayaprakash said that the Corporation could identify additional sources of water in the Palar river and overcome the water scarcity. Rani (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam), 33rd ward councillor said that the people of Kastha Mettu Street did not get water for the last nearly two months.

The Hindu      01.06.2010

Water scarcity issue dominates council meeting

Special Correspondent

Photo: P. Goutham

Debate:A councillor raising water scarcity issue at the Salem Corporation council meeting on Monday. —

SALEM: The issue of drinking water scarcity in the city became the hot subject for discussion in the council meeting of Salem Corporation as councillors cutting across party affiliations raised it on its floor on Monday.

These councillors and zonal chairmen did not hesitate to grab the issue for further discussion though it was mooted by the AIADMK leader K Venkatachalam. They also blamed the middle and lower rung officials for their apathy towards the public issue and also sanitation.

Mr. Venkatachalam asked the Mayor J Rekha Priyadarshini whether the Corporation had utilised the special fund of Rs. 2 crore for drilling bore wells to address the water scarcity problem in the city.

He said that to his knowledge no work had taken place in the city. Preparation of estimates took painfully long and the problem remained unsolved.

The DMK zonal chairman P. Asokan (Ammapet) charged that no official in Salem Corporation was working for the people's welfare.

Water was supplied once in nine days in Ammapet zone. Though Agriculture Minister Veerapandi S Arumugam and the then Collector had asked the Corporation officials to streamline the water supply, no serious effort till today had been initiated. Water scarcity had gripped the city, he said.

Another DMK zonal chairman P Natesan (Asthampatti) put the blame on officials saying that they had totally frayed the functioning of the civic body.

Whenever the councillors asked, the officials claimed that it was due to fund shortage.

The council should be informed about the monthly budget of Corporation and expenditure, he demanded.

The issue of water was raised by almost all councillors who took part in the debate.

Councillor Manickam said that the officials in health especially in malaria wing and engineering sections did not show interest in their work. The Mayor said that she would take necessary action in this regard.

Responding to the queries Commissioner K S Palanisamy said that the finance of the civic body was not that rosy and told the house that officials had to speed up the tax collections.

He said that he would take steps to make officials shrug off their complacency.

Tenders had been called for drilling bore-wells in the city.