Residents of Kumharia village in the Nathusari Chopta block of Sirsa district have started an indefinite protest at the village waterworks, alleging a severe drinking water crisis during the peak summer season. Around 150 households are reportedly not receiving an adequate water supply through the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) pipeline.
The villagers claimed that there had been almost no water supply from the department for the past two months. They said the problem had persisted for nearly a year despite the village waterworks having three storage tanks.
With no regular supply, the families have been forced to buy private water tankers for drinking water. Each tanker costs around Rs 500 and lasts only two to five days, they said.
Many residents, who work as daily wage labourers, said they earned Rs 400-500 a day but were forced to spend nearly the same amount on buying drinking water. They described the situation as a major financial burden.
The protesters said they had repeatedly approached the PHED officials and senior authorities to resolve the issue, but no permanent solution had been provided. According to them, officials only asked them to make repeated visits without taking effective action.
Frustrated by the lack of response, the villagers began an indefinite sit-in protest at the village waterworks. They said the protest would continue until the regular drinking water supply was restored.
Among those participating in the protest are Balbir Dara, Krishan Kumar Dara, Amar Singh, Ram Chander, Madan Dara, Dharampal, Suresh Kumar, Arjun Mew, Vikram Singh, Mahender, Hanuman, Maniram, Sadhu Ram, Pawan, Janak Raj and several other villagers.
Later in the evening, SDO Sandeep Kumar visited the protest site and held talks with the villagers. During the meeting, the villagers accused the village sarpanch of negligence, alleging that he had failed to resolve the issue.
The SDO assured them that he would look into the matter. He said the villagers had approached him about a month ago, after which some material required to fix the problem had been sent, but the issue remained unresolved.
He assured the villagers that a permanent solution would be provided within the next 10 days. Satisfied with the assurance, the villagers agreed to end their protest.
