Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, July 5

As the Municipal Corporation failed to resolve the issue of water scarcity in various parts of Ward 31, residents staged a protest against the authorities at the MC’s Zone C office today. They gave a warning that if water supply was not restored, they would be forced to gherao the MC Commissioner’s residence in days to come.

The residents complained that they had been suffering due to the erratic water supply for the past two-three months but civic body officials had failed to pay any heed to their grievances. Residents of Gagan Nagar, Guru Nanak Nagar, Ajit Singh Colony and Maya Singh Nagar took part in the protest.

Many people living in affected areas are from economically weaker sections. The protesters accused the MC officials of ignoring problems of poor people.

Rajesh Mishra of Gagan Nagar said people were facing a lot of issues during this scorching summer season in the absence of water supply.

“The MC has left people to die without water. It is difficult for us to make arrangements for water. Despite our repeated complaints, the MC has failed to resolve the matter. When we held a protest today, the officials claimed that the two defunct tube wells be made functional soon”, he alleged.

A protesting woman said: “We need water for drinking, cooking, bathing, washing and other purposes. But there is no water supply in the area for a long time. We were forced to hold a protest today as the MC officials had failed to listen to our grievances.”

Notably, residents of some parts of ward 31 had raised the matter of erratic water supply last year too. The councillor concerned had earlier also blamed the civic body for not resolving the water issue in affected areas.

Meanwhile, Superintending Engineer of the MC O&M branch Ravinder Garg could not be contacted for comments.