The Opposition parties have expressed reservations time and again against the State Government's decision to hold Cabinet meetings in the districts in place of the State capital, terming them a 'publicity stunt'.
However, it seems out-of- the-box thinking on the part of the State Government settling the people's grievances and fulfilling their aspirations on the spots. The question is- would such events help to solve the routine, ground-level problems of the people for whom the events are claimed to have been mooted.
Moreover, it is doubtful whether it would stop the murmur of resentment gaining momentum within the ruling party against the perceived apathy of the State Government vis-à-vis the constituency-wise development.
The ruling party MlA from Pithorgarh Mayukh Mahar having staged stir recently against the State Government over the long- pending basic service concerns of the people of his constituency created ripples in the State’s political circles.
Citizens of one of the most prestigious Assembly constituencies, Haldwani, have also been facing similar concerns pertaining to basic services like poor drinking water supply for long. But nothing 'concrete' has been done so far to address the routine concerns of the citizens.
Unlike many other areas, Haldwani region has plenty of drinking water sources. However, drinking water scarcity keeps dogging the people here for years. There is not a day when a part of Haldwani town does not face drinking water problem in one form or the other.
According to the Jal Sasthan officials concerned based in Haldwani, while availability of the drinking water in Haldwani is about 35 million liter per day (MlD) the demand is only around 28 (MlD) even during the peak hours, thus showing about seven MlD drinking water in surplus.
Besides, the Jal Sasthan also installed tube-wells in many parts of the urban as well as the rural parts of Haldwani, yet the drinking water crisis continues. This is mainly because of the delay in replacing over four/ five decade old drinking water distribution system of the Haldwani region and poor storage capacity. More so, excessive dependence on tube wells aggravates the drinking water crisis. Once a tube well becomes dysfunctional it takes over a fortnight to be functional again, the officials concerned maintain.
The festival season is on. Yet, the people of Haldwani's Transport Nagar have been grappling with drinking water crisis for nearly a fortnight as many of the tube wells there are out of order.
Though the officials concerned hope that things would be restored soon patience of the citizens of the affected areas seem to be wearing thin with each passing day.
Unscheduled power cuts daily coupled with low voltage problem has further compounded the people’s woes. This is because the drinking water distribution system here is mostly power-driven.
MlA from Haldwani and State Finance Minister, Indira Haridayesh who had also represented this Assembly segment in the ND Tiwari regime, claims to have a taken steps to solve the drinking water woes of her constituency. But one wonders if it takes four/five decades to address drinking water needs of a ’resourceful’ city like Haldwani.