Bilaspur residents take to streets to highlight administration’s apathy

Kulwinder Sandhu

Gurugram, July 27

To bring the apathy of the district administration to light, residents of Bilaspur village in Gurugram today took to the streets to protest against the state government and the district administration. They were protesting against the poor drainage system leading to stagnation of water on the Bilaspur-Tawde road.

Angry villagers sat on chairs and stood barefoot in the dirty water and blocked the road. They alleged that local residents and school-going children in particular faced problems traversing through the dirty water on the major road passing through the centre of the village and the main market.

The protesters claimed that despite complaining several times, the district administration had not resolved their problem due to which they were forced to hold a protest and block the road.

Advocate Sundar Singh, a local resident, said the gram panchayat of Bilaspur made many efforts to approach the district administration and other authorities concerned , but no solution was found to drain the dirty water.

He said the water overflowed from open drains and accumulated on the roads and streets. The lids of sewerage manholes had been broken for several months, he alleged.

“Due to water stagnation, there is no way left to walk on foot in the village. The bus that takes children to school has also stopped coming to the village as the road is broken and in a poor condition. Children have to wade through the dirty water to go to school,” a villager said.

Village sarpanch Tilak Raj revealed that when the officials came to know about the protest, SDM Darshan Yadav, ACP, SHO of the local police and PWD officials reached the spot.

The villagers handed over a memorandum of their demands to the SDM who ordered the district development and panchayat officer (DDPO) present on the spot to make arrangements for the drainage of the water. He also ordered the re-measurement of the land of both Bilaspur Kalan and Bilaspur Khurd villages accordingly. The SDM told the villagers that he would take up the matter with the Deputy Commissioner so that the problem could be resolved as soon as possible.

Poor infra causing inconvenience

Due to water stagnation, there is no way left to walk on foot in the village. The bus that takes children to school has also stopped coming to the village as the road is broken and in a poor condition. Children have to wade through the dirty water to go to school. — Local resident, Bilaspur