Forty families of two villages were forced to trudge for up to seven kilometres to fetch water for the past four years but following the directions of the Uttarakhand High Court in a public interest litigation, the department concerned has repaired the damaged pipeline to the area.
The villagers have been assured that water supply will be resumed this week. The 40 families of Mandakhal in Padulsyun Patti and Chinakhi in Nadalsyun Patti in the Pauri district were deprived of drinking water supply for the last four years. The villagers had to trudge up to seven kms to fetch water. However, following a PIl filed by former district bar
association president, Vinodanand Barthwal, the Uttarakhand High Court directed that necessary steps be taken. The Peyjal Nigam repaired the pipeline on war footing and supplied the drinking water to a few families on Sunday.
The corporation claimed that water supply to all families will be resumed in three days. The public of Mandakhal breathed a sigh of relief and felicitated the petitioner at a function organised by them. The petitioner Vinodanand Barthwal said that on seeing the problems faced by the people of Mandakhal, he had filed a PIl in the High Court on May 30, 2013 in which the court directed Peyjal Nigam and Jal Sansthan to
supply drinking water to the residents of Mandakhal by tankers. Additionally the department concerned was also directed to repair the damaged pipeline.
Roopali Chowfin, Anita Mani and other people of Mandakhal said that they had been facing problems in drinking water supply supply since 2003.
They had then approached the district administration and State Government but no action was taken by the authorities. A limited quantity of water was being received through the Dobri scheme but this too was damaged by works executed for the Nanghat water scheme about four years ago. Since then the water supply to the area had completely stopped.