Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Sept 6: Traffic remained disrupted for hours on the ever-busy BC Road today as hundreds of locals staged a demonstration against the prevailing water and power crisis in the district, resulting in inconvenience to the commuters.
Led by MLA Jammu West, Arvind Gupta, the agitating locals said several areas in the Jammu district have not received water supply for the last around 10-12 days, due to the administration’s failure to restore the Jal Shakti and PDD infrastructure damaged in the recent heavy rainfall and subsequent inundation.
While the administration claims water supply has been restored in around 80% of localities of the Jammu district and other areas are receiving water through almost 600 Government as well as private tankers put into service, the agitators rejected the claims, stating, “Neither water supply has been restored in 80% of areas, nor are tankers reaching all the affected localities.”
They alleged the administration is misleading the people with false assurances about the restoration of water and power supplies.
Addressing media persons, MLA Jammu West, Arvind Gupta alleged the Jal Shakti Department has completely failed to restore water and power supply in his constituency and several other areas of the district.
“In my area alone, the water supply has not been restored for the past around 10-12 days in Ward numbers 24, 25, 26, and 39. The people in other localities are also saying that they’re not receiving proper water and power supply,” he said.
The MLA also blamed the NC-Congress Government for the mismanagement, as according to him, no alternate arrangements have been made to ensure that people don’t suffer due to water shortage.
“While the toll-free numbers issued by the Government to provide individual tankers are defunct, the PHE officials are not cooperating, leaving people in distress, as no alternate arrangements have been made to provide them with water supply,” he said.
Another agitator said that the situation is similar in almost all the localities of Jammu district, including Indira Colony, Lakkar Mandi, Keran, Bantallab, Bharat Nagar, Ganga Nagar, Roop Nagar, the entire Old City, and other areas, with some localities not receiving water since August 26-when the supply got snapped due to the deluge causing massive damage to the infrastructure.
According to him, the number of tankers (around 600) is insufficient to provide water supply to almost 20 lakh Jammu district residents.
“And it is impossible for the department to take tankers in some of the localities where the lanes are narrow. So, how will the department ensure the availability of water in such localities?” he asked.
“They have no plan B,” he added, criticising the Government for its failure to restore the water supply.
PHE Minister Javed Ahmed Rana, however, claimed that most filtration plants damaged in the deluge, including Boria, Tawi, and Sitlee have been restored, where water supply is being ensured in a gradual manner, while the filtration plant at Manda will be restored by tomorrow evening or Monday morning.
Acknowledging the load on helpline numbers and the administration’s failure to respond to individual grievances, he sought cooperation from the public to help the department deal with a crisis of a major scale.
“Jammu has faced one of the worst disasters in recent times. With PDD and Jal Shakti Department infrastructures badly damaged in the deluge, it will take some time to completely come out of this disaster. People have to cooperate,” he said, while assuring that water supply to all localities would be restored soon.
Meanwhile, the protest on the BC Road was called off around 7 PM after authorities assured to look into the grievances of the locals.
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