Kapurthala -- Politicians may make tall claims of development, but the fact is that several localities in almost every city are deprived of basic amenities like clean drinking water, pollution free air to breathe and calm environment to live peacefully. Kapurthala city is no exception to this. Residents of nearly a dozen localities situated in the city have been getting contaminated water for the past two years, thanks to the water pump situated in Niranjan Nagar, falling under ward number one represented by none other but the president of Kapurthala Municipal Council, Mr Sudesh Agarwal.
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Actually, the lubricating oil pump was installed there about forty years ago. It is now not in good working condition. Off and on, lubricating oil is given to its shafts to ensure proper working. That oil gets mixed with water and thus contaminated water is supplied to nearly a dozen localities.
Officials Speak:
Patwarkhana was contaminated. Interestingly, he said the water became contaminated as the lubricating oil got mixed with it. However, he added that the supply of contaminated water was restricted to a few hours only.
He claimed that the problem would be solved once for all within a month, as a new tubewell would be installed in the area and the same would start functioning within a month.
The localities that are facing this problem of contaminated water include Sheen Pura, Jat Pura, Sher Wala Gate, Purana Hospital area, Prakash Avenue,
Adarsh Nagar, Niranjan Nagar, Shalimar Avenue, Lakshmi Nagar and Guru Teg Bahadur Nagar. Clean potable water has become a luxury for the residents here, as most of the houses situated in these localities are being supplied contaminated water.
“We had been getting contaminated water from time to time for the past two years, but the problem has increased since the past two months,” said Mr. Naveen Kumar, showing a transparent plastic bottle filled with dirty water.
Naveen Kumar said they had been left with no option but to use this water for drinking, though they boiled it. Diarrhoea and stomach aches were common complaints, he added. His neighbour, Ms Kailash, said they used cloth to filter out suspended impurities in water.
Similarly, Om Prakash Chawla from Jat Pura locality said, “We feel that the Municipal Council has not been performing its duty with full sincerity. Otherwise, such problems can be tackled easily. After all, it is a matter of the health of the people.”
Almost similar were the views of Sukhjinder Kumar, Rajesh Kumar and Ravi Kumar from Sher Wala Gate and Surendra Sharma from Sheen Pura Mohalla.
Saying that not all residents could install water purifiers at their homes, they expressed the fear that if the Municipal Council did not wake up from its sleep at the earliest, these localities could be the hotbed of water-borne diseases.
Interestingly, the house of the vice-president of Kapurthala Municipal Council, Mr Baksheesh Singh Labha, is located in Jat Pura locality, and contaminated water is supplied there also.
When Jalandhar Plus contacted him, he said that the pump from which the water was supplied was out of order and it required to be changed at the earliest. He refused to comment on other queries.