Even though people in the State capital have been facing acute water and electricity crisis for the last few days, concerned officials are putting the onus on each other. According to the officials of the Drinking Water and Sanitation Department, if un-interrupted power supply is ensured to them, there will never be any scarcity of drinking water in the State capital while the officials of electricity department claimed that a separate dedicated line has been provided to them.
Even after 14 years, a larger section of people are still dependent on alternative source for drinking water in Ranchi. “Water crisis is created only due to interrupted power supply as we have enough water in Rukka dam. If we are assured un-interrupted power supply, people will never have to face any problem regarding drinking water,” said Executive Engineer of Water and Sanitation Department Ajay Singh, posted at Booty Pump House in Ranchi.
People in several parts of Ranchi like Ashok Nagar, Kadru and adjoining localities these days are facing acute water crisis due to the damage caused by the workers of Road Construction department while digging for construction of road near Radisson Blu Hotel. “Six lanes of DI pipes have been dislocated by the workers of RCD while they were digging for construction of road near Radisson Blu Hotel due to which water supply in Ashok Nagar-Kadru area has been adversely affected,” said Singh.
The repair work has not been started due to lack of funds available with us, which is to be done technically by the RCD, Singh said, “It will further take at least 2-3 days to restart water supply to the affected areas.” Referring to the scarcity of water created in some of the low lying areas, Singh attributed it to the illegal use of motor pumps by the households for sucking water from the pipeline for lifting water to the overhead tanks.
“We have informed the City Commissioner of Ranchi Municipal Corporation regarding the problem being created by direct water pumps fitted with the water pipelines, but they have not taken any action against it so far,” he said.
Officials of Ranchi Municipal Corporation also put the onus on Electricity Department. “During a joint meeting with the DWSD and Electricity Department, it was decided that power supply of the area will be cut off while providing them water, but it seems no step has been taken by the concerned officials so far,” said RMC PRO Naresh Prasad.
Officials of the Electricity Department, on the other hand, refuting the charges leveled against it, said that they have provided a dedicated line for Booty water treatment plant with un-interrupted power supply to it. “We had a problem with transmission network on Thursday resulting into failure of the grid which was a temporary and was fixed within few hours, but it is not at all correct that the water crisis is created by us,” said an official in the Electricity Department requesting anonymity. “We have provided a separate dedicated line of 33 KV for Booty Pump House which is interrupted only in case of failed power grid,” said the official. Rationing is also not done on this line, he added.