The villagers from Bhattigaon, mostly the women, staged a demonstration in the district magistrate office premises in the collectorate in Pauri on Wednesday, articulating anger against the acute drinking water scarcity they have been grappling for over six months. The protestor raised slogans against Jal Sansthan and said that the officers of the department are apathetic towards the woe of the villagers. The women protestors warned the sub-divisional magistrate K S Negi while serving him a letter signed by gram pradhan among others that if the drinking water problem is not addressed in a day or two the villagers would start hunger strike along with their children in Pauri.
As per the letter, despite the villagers having time and again appealed to the Jal Sansthan executive engineer, junior engineer and field officers to address their drinking water woe, nothing had happened. The letter also mentioned that the engineers had been taken to the village on March 15 and had been shown the acute crisis they were facing.
One of the villagers said that though the water supply is regular from Dobra to Chaubatta, the same has remained erratic to the village Bhattigaon for many months. “We believe that the field employees of Jal Sansthan have removed the supply pipe line from Chaubatta to the village as the lineman does not want to supply water to our village for reasons best known to him,” he said.
The villagers further said that they have complained against the discrimination against the primary school in the village. They alleged that the primary school in the village had been shut down by the education department for having eight students while the same in Paligaon Sarna had been left untouched despite it having just two students. “We would not tolerate such discrimination,” said the Gram Pradhan lakshmi Devi.