Higher Education and Industries Minister Ananta Das, who is again seeking mandate for the fourth time in a row, faced wrath of villagers while he was proceeding in a rally in Karanjasola village under Jagannathpur GP recently.
The residents of the village, mainly women, picketed the road with buckets, pots, and utensils. They stopped his election rally, alleging they were not getting safe drinking water in their area for last two months and the crisis had turned acute when mercury was soaring with the advent of summer season.
They further threatened to boycott the ensuing elections and said won’t cast vote unless their issue was addressed.
However, the agitators withdrew from the road picketing after Das assured to resolve their crisis within two days.
According to sources, Karanjasola was under the Hugli GP of the block and the residents were getting drinking water from the GP. However, after delimitation and new structuring of GPs, the village came under a new GP, ie , Jagannatpur . They were receiving water from the Guhali GP of the block. While pipe water supply to the village was usual from the Guhali GP, since about two months the supply has been stalled.
The agitators alleged that although the area has tube wells yet they were unfit as they were discharging saline water and further a water pump installed near Kalimandir was not discharging adequate drinking water. Regarding the crisis while they apprised everyone concerned, yet all the appeals fell in deaf ears.