Bijbehara village pleads for help, demand drinking water facility
Anantnag: A village in Bijbehara area of south Kashmir’s Anantnag district has been carving for drinking water facility since decades.
Residents of Subhanpora area in Bijbehara said that in absence of water, they are melting snow in their containers and boiling it for using for drinking and other purposes.
“We are being deprived of the basic necessity at a time when people in other parts of the world enjoy all modern facilities. Thousands of residents are made to suffer on daily basis,” Ghulam Mohammed, a local resident said.
“Aren’t we humans and don’t we deserve to get the basic facilities like potable water,” he said adding that despite repeated pleas by the villagers to concerned department the authorities have failed to mitigate the issue.
“We are forced to drink contaminated water due to which children and elderly often fall ill,” said Mohammed Abdullah, another local resident.
He said that since last three years they have been moving from pillar to post to get the issue redressed but except promises they haven’t got anything as of now.
They said that the villagers wonder that why a village which is hardly one kilometre away from national highway-44 and two kilometres from Bijbehara town has been kept deprived of drinking water facility.
“When authorities have failed to install water supply scheme here what will be condition of far flung areas,” they added.
The locals once again requested the higher ups to look into the matter and provide drinking water facilities to the area.
When contacted, Chief Engineer PHE Iftikhaar Ahmad, said that a scheme for Subhanpora village has been sanctioned recently, however, work could not be started due to winter and wet weather.
“If whether permits, very soon work will be started on the scheme,” he added.
Jahangeer Ganaie
