Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Feb 15: Ange-red at the supply of ‘contaminated’ water, scores of residents of border Uri Town in North Kashmir’s Baramulla district today staged a protest against the Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department and locked the employees of the PHE in their office.
The angry residents alleged that the PHE is not supplying them with clean drinking water even as they pay the bills on time since the floods hit Kashmir valley. They said that post-floods lakhs of rupees have been spent on damaged water pipelines and water supply schemes but they are yet to get completed.
“The incompletion of these projects have directly affected us and we are being forced to drink contaminated water that is being supplied to our homes by the concerned department,” the protesters said.
The residents also said that some of the households do not have water connections but still bills were sent to them and were asked to pay the same. The protesting residents while shouting slogans against the concerned officials locked the local PHE office along with the employees of the department.
As the situation started to simmer, a police party led by Station House Officer (SHO) Tabraiz Ahmad Khan rushed to the spot and pacified the protesters. The top cop assured them of taking up their grievance with the concerned authorities at higher level.
Later the protesters dispersed off peacefully while the SHO Khan broke the lock of the PHE office and set the employees caged inside free.
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