Karnataka - Belgaum   

Protest against poor water supply management

Staff Correspondent

`Water supply board has not been able to ensure regular supply'

Belgaum: Activists of "Baomb Maro Sanghatana," an organisation formed to fight injustice and corruption, staged a demonstration in front of the office of the Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Drainage Board in protest against the "inefficient" management of drinking water supply system here on Tuesday.

Sanghatana president Shashi Kumar Kittur, who led the protest, said that residents in several localities had started facing drinking water problem due to inefficient management, and the negligent and irresponsible attitude of the board staff. Although there was not shortage of water at the source, the board had not been able to ensure regular supply, he alleged. The World Bank-aided "24x7 Drinking Water Supply Scheme" implemented in a few Belgaum City Corporation (BCC) wards had been a failure, Mr. Shashi Kumar Kittur alleged.

After the board had taken over drinking water supply system from BCC last year and started implementing the new scheme in selected areas from April, new pipelines had developed problems and old ones had gone dry, he said.

The board was slapping huge bills on residents of the cobblers' colony near Nathpai Circle in Shahpur, to which the BCC had provided tap connections about fifteen years ago.

If that if the BCC had utilised 18 per cent of funds to pay bills for drinking water supply to the cobbler's colony, the question of the board issuing bills for a period of 15 years would not have arisen.

Therefore, he said had asked the Board to clarify immediately as to what prompted it to issue the bill, Shashi Kumar Kittur.

Mr. Shashi Kumar Kittur said action would be sought under the "Civil Rights Act" if the board went ahead with its threat of disconnecting water connections to cobblers' houses.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Still hanging on Gandhiji's words
Protest against poor water supply management

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu