Bandipora village waits for portable water supply
Bandipora: Portable drinking water has become a dream for the people of Chichinar, a remote village in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district for the last several years as the concerned department has failed to provide them clean usable water.
Local residents said that they either get drinking water from nearby rivulets or springs located in the forest area.
The villagers said that they have been making representations to the concerned department from the last several years but to no avail.
“We are yet to get portable drinking water. Either the government has forgotten our remote village or they want to keep us without this necessary supply, ” they said.
They said that they have been left at God’s mercy as the concerned department doesn’t seem to be bothered about their sufferings.
Chichinar village which is located at a distance of about 20 kilometers from district headquarters is dominated mostly by Gujjar community with around 30 households.
“The women folk have to cover a long distance to fetch water from streams or from far off small springs located in the forest area. However, the water we bring from the different places is not suitable for drinking and then we have no other option but to consume this water and use the same for other purposes as well,” the villagers said.
The villagers alleged that though a huge amount of money was spent on the process of laying new water pipes which was initiated some three years ago but for some unknown reason the work was left midway, leaving the villagers high and dry.
They alleged that the concerned officials have swindled lakhs of Rupees in the name of constructing a water supply scheme in their village which is why the scheme was never made functional.
The villagers urged the concerned authorities to immediately take steps for the restoration of water supply so that the years of hardship come to an end.
They appealed to the deputy commissioner Bandipora to personally look into the issueand help resolve it at an earliest.
Meanwhile, executive engineer Jal-Shakti division Bandipora, Abdul Khaliq Qureshi said that they are taking up the scheme now under Jal Jeevan Mission to make it functional and provide water supply to the villagers. (KNO)
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