Nurpur: Ex-MLA’s Trust comes to aid of villagers facing water crisis

Rajiv Mahajan
Nurpur, June 2

Residents of Gurchal village in the Mamooh-Gurchal gram panchayat in Nurpur heaved a sigh of relief when members of a private charitable trust rushed to this panchayat with five water tankers for villagers who have not been getting water supply for the past two months.

The Tribune had highlighted the plight of villagers in a report titled ‘Erratic piped water supply for 2 months, villagers irked’, published on Wednesday.

The trust named ‘Sat Mahajan Charitable Trust’ is being managed by the family of former minister late Sat Mahajan. Former local MLA and Kangra district Congress president Ajay Mahajan, who is the son of late Sat Mahajan, accompanied these water tankers and facilitated distribution of water among the villagers through activists of the local Block Congress Committee. On this occasion, he accused the government of being apathetic in addressing the piped water problem being faced in the panchayat, which had forced residents to consume “contaminated” water of an open well. He alleged people of the whole Nurpur Assembly constituency were facing water scarcity but the Jal Shakti Department seemed to be dormant about addressing the problem.

He alleged that the state government had shelved a number of drinking water and lift irrigation schemes sanctioned during the previous Virbhadra Singh regime. “It is surprising that the state government and local MLA, who is also a minister, are silent over the burgeoning water crisis in the area. The government has also banned installation of new hand pumps and no repair or maintenance of existing defunct hand pumps is being undertaken in the state,” he lamented.