UT water crises precipitated by inter-state dispute: MC

Time of India

2 days ago

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Chandigarh: With several areas of the city experiencing a severe water crises, MC engineering department officials revealed that Chandigarh received less water due to the tussle between governments of Punjab and Haryana over release of water.
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Replying to questions of councillors during MC house meeting, engineering department officials said that since the issue had been resolved, Chandigarh had started receiving water at full capacity. However, it would take time for things to go back to normal.
"During the tussle between Punjab and Haryana governments over release of water, pumping remained slow in Kajauli canal, from where Chandigarh gets water. Due to this, water level in Kajauli went down 2 feet, causing water scarcity.
Now, proper water supply has been restored but stabilisation is taking time. Engineering officers of Punjab did not tell us about this at the time," an executive engineer of the MC said while replying to questions of councillors.
As per records, currently, the MC gets 87 MGD water supply on a daily basis, of which around 62 MGD comes through the Kajauli water canal, while the remaining 25 MGD is taken from tubewells located across the city.
Raising the issue of the water crises in their respective wards, they said that this was the first time the city had experienced such a severe situation.
When most councillors raised the issue of water crises in their respective municipal wards. They said that this was the first time such an extreme water crisis-like situation had occurred. Deputy mayor Tarun Mehta said, "Though there are problems with water supply in the summer, such an extreme water supply crisis has occurred for the first time."
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BJP's Jasmanpreet Singh said, "I have been constantly telling officers concerned about the persisting water crises in my municipal ward, but the problem remains."
AAP's Jaswinder Kaur said that a number of councillors were getting water supply through MC tankers but questioned how long it could serve the purpose.
Box: Complaint of muddy water
AAP councillor Suman Devi, who represents Indra Colony, brought a bottle of muddy water from her area to show the extent of the water supply problem.
Raising questions on water supply, she said that area residents had been receiving muddy water for many days, but the problem had not been resolved. According to her, the officer concerned told them that the problem was caused by soil in the water supply pipleline and had been resolved.
Box: 24X7 water supply project questioned
Raising questions on the 24X7 water supply project, Congress councillor Gurpreet Singh Gabi demanded that it be cancelled immediately and a Vigilance probe be conducted. He also demanded closure of the 24X7 water supply project in Manimajra. Gabi pointed out that the consultancy fee of Rs 29 crore, which had been paid, was nearly 8% of the total project cost and unheard of anywhere in the world. He also criticised the MC for removing tubewell operators, saying that it takes 20 to 25 minutes to start a single tubewell.
He questioned how one operator could manage three tubewells at once.
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