Poovarasan
Mayabunder, July 29: On one hand the Andaman and Nicobar Administration is launching Jal Shakti Abhiyan (JSA) in entire Andaman and Nicobar Islands and massive strategies have been drawn for this campaign, one the other hand people of a tiny hamlet in middle Andaman are struggling to get even drinking water.
Nearly 15 families living in this tiny hamlet of Ward No. 3, Tugapur No. 8 have to walk nearly 1 km to reach nearest pipeline or else they have walk inside jungle, upto a waterfall, from where they collect water to drink.
The villagers allege that even after all these years the Administration has failed to provide water pipeline in the village.
When contacted the Pradhan of the Village Mr. Shibananda Bairagi told Andaman Sheekha that to mitigate water problem of the said village and all villages nearby an estimate of nearly 83 lakh related to a water distribution project was sent to department of RD nearby nine months back but till now no concrete action has been taken in this regard.
“The Panchayat of Pahalgaon had send a reminder regarding the estimate nearly four months back after which one letter had come from the Department of RD, which said that Joint Secretary RD is examining the estimate and again there was no response,” said that Pradhan.
He added that the remote village on encroachment land is situated in hilltop and before tsunami APWD had laid pipelines but after tsunami the water sources dried up and the village again remained devoid of water connection. Later the work was given to Panchayat. “But without approval of RD Department how will a panchayat work?” he questioned.
Almost everyday, we are listening about launch of new scheme and campaigns but if the benefits of these schemes and campaigns do not reach to the village level people then who should be held responsible for this?
