Belonia, Sep 09, 2023, TRIPURATIMES Desk

Belonia Sep 9:  Providing a drinking water facility is one of the prime priorities of Central and State governments and accordingly necessary infrastructures were built.

Despite this, residents of Reang Para often use muddy water collected from mud-well for drinking purposes. Thanks to the concerned departments for the drinking water crisis, alleged the residents.

Reang Para, a hamlet at Uttar Sonaichhari Gram Panchayat under Hrishyamukh block in South District, did not see any development works during the long tenure of the Leftists. After a change in power in 2018, the Government initiated some steps for the development with an emphasis on improving road connectivity and most importantly, providing safe drinking water.

The drinking water crisis is the main problem that the people of Reang Para – around 30 families live there – are facing. With the Government initiative, a water source was created which reportedly remains non-functional most of the time. There is a Water Tap point of the DWS at the entrance of the hamlet through which an inadequate quantity of water is available for the people. Since early morning people stand in a long queue hoping to collect water.

A water tank was set up near the Anganwadi Centre, but it is now in abandoned condition and Anganwadi staff need to travel a long way to fetch water for cooking.

Narrating their plights, an elderly woman of the hamlet, Basanti Reang said, “An adequate number of water sources were not created in the hamlet.If the government-created water source becomes non-functional, we are forced to drink water collected from a mud well located in the foothills of our hamlet”.             

The works under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) are ongoing and pipes were laid in the hamlet.

“We were told that under the JJM, drinking water will be supplied. It took almost five years to complete pipe laying work and no one knows when the water supply will commence. The government officials appear to be lethargic and making unnecessary delays in the implementation of the development works in the hamlet. Also, there are allegations against the section of implementing agencies and concerned departmental officials”, residents of the Reang Para said.

They also vented anger over the deplorable Bailey Bridge and precarious road conditions.