MADURAI
People from at least three villages petitioned the Collector’s office here on Monday, alleging acute shortage of drinking water in their areas for many weeks.
A group of people from Koodakovil said they had no source of water for drinking and other purposes since all the borewells in the panchayat had dried up. “The Block Development Officer (BDO) came to our village last month and said ₹ 1.5 lakh had been sanctioned for sinking a new borewell. But, nothing has happened since then,” M. Valarmathi from the village said.
“We do not have elected representatives for the past three years and the panchayat clerk is not doing anything to mitigate the problem,” she added.
Those who came from Paraipatti near Peraiyur alleged that they were defrauded by the contractor engaged by Rural Development department to sink a borewell in the village.
K. Paramasivam from the village said while the borewell that had been providing water to the village dried up four months ago, a proposal was made to sink a new borewell. “However, there was no water yield at the spot where a borewell was sunk. The contractor assured us that a new borewell will be sunk at another spot, but that never happened,” he said.
Meanwhile, the villagers reportedly got to know from the BDO that the contractor took his money by presenting manipulated evidence showing that a working borewell had been dug in the village.
“Though an enquiry by the BDO confirmed the fraud, no action has been taken. People continue to face water shortage,” he added.
Another petition was filed by people of Navakulam in Madurai East panchayat union, where the only borewell available for drinking water was damaged. “For the past many weeks, people have been experiencing a lot of problems in search of drinking water,” M. Alwar said.