Chandigarh, June 2:With the temperature soaring by the day, the water and power crises in the city have peaked. Residents of 13 villages merged with the MC recently are the worst affected by the water crisis.
A large number of villagers, including women, of Daria today held a protest near the railway station against the Municipal Corporation saying that they were not getting any water supply. Daria residents have been facing an acute shortage of water for many days.
Gurpreet Singh Happy, a former sarpanch of the village, said it had been over a month since hundreds of residents were facing a shortage of water. The villagers ended the dharna after MC officials assured them that the water supply would improve within 10 days. Residents of Raipur Khurd and Kishangarh have also been facing a water crisis.
Residents said while the villages had been merged with Chandigarh MC a few months ago, the civic body had failed to take care of the basic need of water.
They said they had been forced to pay for private water tankers. The tankers charge heavy fee and fleece people knowing that they are in dire need. Residents of many sectors are also facing a water crisis.
Thirteen villages — Bahlana, Raipur Khurd, Raipur Kalan, Makhan Majra, Daria, Mauli Jagran, Kishangarh, Kaimbwala, Khuda Ali Sher, Khuda Jassu, Khuda Lahora, Sarangpur and Dhanas — were merged with the MC recently.
While the water supply was made available by the Administration before the merger, residents outside the lal dora started facing a shortage. MC officials said they could not provide the water supply outside the lal dara as per law.
Residents reel under power cuts
The demand for power also reached a record high of 380 MW on Sunday. The department is facing a tough time in meeting the rising demand. Residents of many sectors faced an outage on Sunday. Residents of Sector 17, 18, 19, 26 and 27 faced power cuts ranging from six to eight hours after the Sector 32 substation developed a snag.
Bills not paid, dispensary loses power
Patients and staff at the dispensary in Sarangpur village are facing a tough time as its power supply was snapped by the Electricity Department a few days ago as power bills amounting to Rs 2.70 lakh have not been paid so far. The village was adopted by MP Kirron Kher under the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana during her last tenure as MP. Sadhu Singh, a former sarpanch of the village, said earlier the panchayat was paying the bills, but after the village was merged with the MC, the bills were pending.
