Udayachal residents demand pure drinking water

FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
SILCHAR, May 7: The residents of Udayachal lane and its nearby areas, in tiol Highway road, have been consuming filthy, dirty, contamited and poisonous water for almost a week. The pipeline under a culvert broke away allowing large quantities of dirty water enter thorough it. The residents are angry upon the authorities concerned. On May 4, the residents went to the Assam Water Supply and Sewerage Board, Barak Valley division, located at Link Road, here. Gopal Kanti Roy, former ward commissioner, along with other residents of the affected place, submitted a memorandum stating their problems and also asked them to take immediate action. They told the officials that there is a fear of an epidemic as many water-borne diseases are like to spread.
The residents expressed their anger in a unique and unconventiol manner. The agitated lot ‘gifted’ the officials of the department bottles of contamited water that they have been using since a week. Biresh Chandra Banerjee, a resident of that area and also a senior citizen accompanied them.
He seemed disturbed at the slow progress of the work. He along with the other residents of the area are worrying a lot since consuming such quality of water may affect everyone and can prove fatal also. The memorandum has been submitted to the higher officials since the engineer was attending a meeting organized by the District Development Committee in the office of the Deputy Commissioner, Cachar. They asked the authorities concerned to do the needful within 24 hours. They told that if repair work is not carried out within the given time, then things may go out of control. But 24 hours hence, no work has been done yet. Banerjee said that it is unbelievable that even after residing in a civilized society, the residents are bound to use such filthy water.
On the day of their submission of the memorandum on May 4, a letter was received by the residents which stated that an estimate of Rs. 1.5 lakh has been sent to Guwahati for sanctioning so that the repairing the pipeline can be carried out without any further delay. But the residents mentioned in particular that they can collect funds and provide the money required for the aforesaid work.