Infuriated over the supply of contaminated water for last two months, women of Safipur village under Beri sub-division here held the officials of Public Health Department captive in the village on Tuesday.
The women freed them after three hours when some other officials reached there and assured the irate women of ensuring clean drinking water supply soon. The officials had come to the village to inspect the laying of new pipeline work. New pipeline for potable water is being laid by the public health department in the village for last three months. The department has made make-shift arrangement to provide drinking water to the villagers so that they don’t have to fetch the water from distance places.
The villagers alleged that so much dirty water was being supplied in the village through the temporary arrangement these days, which can not be used even for cleaning the houses as well. Moreover, a significant numbers of children had fallen ill after drinking the water during while the fear of outbreak of water-borne diseases or even an epidemic is also looming large here following the supply of contaminated water, they added.
“We have many times lodged our complaint regarding the supply of dirty water with the office of the public health department but the officials posted there misbehaved with us instead of redressing the grievance,” alleged the villagers. They also maintained that work of laying the pipelines was also being carried out sluggishly taking a toll on the women who had to face hardship in arranging the potable water for their families.
The sources said as soon as some officials of the public health department reached the village in the morning to take stock of the ongoing laying pipeline work, several women also assembled at the water works and reportedly reprimanded them for not paying heed to their complaints of potable water. Thereafter, the women held them captive in a room at the water works after bolting it from outside, said the sources. The SDO of the public health department could not be contacted to get his version in this regard.
This was the second incident within last three days when the villagers misbehaved with the Government officials in the village of Beri sub-division. A Junior Engineer (JE) and two linemen with Haryana Power Corporation had to face the wrath of a villager when they went to Baghpur village here to check power theft three days ago. The villager not only manhandled the officials but also snatched the power wires from them in a fit of anger after being caught red handed while committing power theft.