Karnataka - Gulbarga   

Protest against move to privatise drinking water

Special Correspondent

`It is the duty of the Government to provide potable drinking water'

OPPOSITION: Members of various organisations staging a protest in Gulbarga on Thursday against privatisation of the drinking water supply system.

GULBARGA: Protesting against the privatisation and commercialisation of drinking water supply in Gulbarga city, members of different political and social organisations under the banner of the Kudiyuva Neeru Kasigikarana Virodhi Horata Samiti on Thursday staged a dharna in front of the Deputy Commissioner's office here.

The protest was led by CPI district secretary Shoukat Ali Alur, Socialist Unity Centre of India district secretary H.A. Diwakar and secretary of Pragnya Yuvak Sangha Allamprabhu Nimbarga.

Memorandum

In a memorandum to Deputy Commissioner Pankajkumar Pandey, the protesters demanded that the Government withdraw a move to privatise drinking water supply in Gulbarga city immediately.

The memorandum said under the 24-hour supply to selected wards, the corporation and the Karnataka Urban Water Supply Board proposed to collect high tariff from consumers.

The State Government had given the responsibility of executing the 24 by 7 supply to 11 wards in Gulabrga city to a France-based company at a cost of Rs. 49.85 crore.

Selling drinking water was against the principles of socialism, they added. It was the Constitutional duty of the Government to provide potable drinking water free of cost, they said. The memorandum said 75 per cent of the population in the city depended on public taps for their drinking water requirement and privatisation of the system would affect poor people who could not afford to pay for drinking water.

The memorandum wanted the Government to ensure supply of drinking water to all localities at an affordable cost.

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