Denizens run short of running water!

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Nov 26: The bin gar and Anil gar area in the city has to go through fire and water just to get themselves and their property protected from water during the monsoon and to get adequate quantity of running water all throughout the year. GMC has failed to serve them well on both the fronts.

A smart spell of rain is enough to inundate the houses in the Anil gar-bin gar area during the monsoon. The residents in the area have a harrowing time every year during the monsoon to get rid of water-logging. At the same time, these people have to face untold suffering due to short-supply of potable water. Ironically, the people of both Anil gar and bin gar get water supply from both GMC and the Urban Water Supply Project. However, a section of residents complaints to get less water as often as not because of an unscrupulous practice by another section of people in the area.

The complaint from a section of residents of this area is that they get more water when there is no power supply in the area than what they get when there is power supply. The reason behind this, as they say, is: when there is power supply a section of unscrupulous lot takes more water by using pump sets or motors, leading to decrease in the water share of others in the area. This unscrupulous lot cannot pull more water by using pump sets or motors when there is no power supply, and this is crystal clear among the residents who are in the receiving end because of this wrongdoing.

Madhusudhan Das, a resident of the area in the city, said: “When there’s power supply, we hardly get 200/300 litres of running water. In that case, we have to buy water daily at the rate of Rs 250 per 1,000 litres and Rs 200 per 750 litres. We do feel the pinch. However, when there is no power supply in the area, each of the residents here gets Rs 600/700 litres.”

Das further said: “Earlier, GMC used to carry sudden raids against people pulling water illegally with pump sets and motor sets. There were instances of pump sets and motor sets having been seized by the civic body and charging fines from the wrongdoers. But that’s history now.”