Apathy of panchayat officials has Brahmavar thirsting for water

Kevin Rodrigues
Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (GA)
 
Udupi, Jul 30: Water scarcity is predominately a summer bane. However there is a ward in Varambally gram panchayat limits of Brahmavar where water problem is more than just a problem. It has become very much part and parcel of the residents’ life. At least 6-7 days every month, people of this ward have to run pillar to post to fetch water as panchayat pipeline goes off. The problem is limited to only one ward in the panchayat limits and even after many years no one has bothered to find a permanent solution.
 
This time residents received dirty muddy water in the taps for two days till they complained. When they raised the issue with their local representative, instead of solving the problem, water supply itself was stopped for three days.

The issue was brought to the notice of Daijiworld Brahmavar correspondent who in turn raised the issue with Udupi MLA Pramod Madhwaraj. The MLA informed that he was aware of the problem and it was solved yesterday (Monday July 29) as per his directives to the persons concerned.
 
Accordingly, water supply should have been restored to this ward immediately since residents had no water supply for the last 6 days. But instead of giving priority to supply water to this ward, the in-charge followed his usual process and supplied water to all other wards first despite knowing that there was no supply in this particular ward for almost a week and common sense should have prevailed.
 
But that is not the case with the panchayat officials. Everytime the issue has been raised with the panchayat members or officials, everyone there seems to have different reasons for the same problem. While one tells that there is technical snag with the water pump, other one blames MESCOM for irregular supply of electricity while a third one tells that water pipe has been damaged and another one tells that repair workers are not available. Even if what they tell is right, the problem should persist in all the 16 wards of the Varambally panchayat, but no, it persists only with this particular ward.

"This is nothing but sheer negligence on the part of the authorities and shows how insensitive they are to public problems. It is not a problem of yesterday or today but has been going on for quite long," said a Brahmavar resident. Congress is ruling the panchayat with absolute majority and the problem has continued to persist under 3 successive panchayat presidents.
 
One of the residents had in fact brought this issue to the notice of the earlier president just before the completion of his term. The then president had assured to resolve the issue before his tenure as president ended. It’s more than 4 months eversince and the problem still continues to haunt the residents every day.
 
Water is supplied regularly. But those in-charge need to ensure that each of the wards within their limits gets adequate supply of water. Instead of solving problem for this particular ward, the in-charge persons completely stopped the supply, may be thinking that this was the best solution!
 
As per another resident, earlier the panchayat officials used to tell that they were not able to find a permanent solution to this problem because the former MLA who hailed from another party did not heed to their request to grant monetary assistance for new pumps, pipeline etc. But now all the 16 wards, taluk panchayat members, ZP member and even the MLA are from the same party. Yet they are not able to solve the problem.

"It shows sheer apathy on the part of the officials and nothing else. Where there is will there is a way. But once elected, the representatives have their own will and own way. Now the elections are over, everyone is taking rest and they will get up from their slumber just before the next Lok Sabha polls," alleged a local.

Varambally GP has some influential people and they are believed to have good contacts with the authorities, MLAs, MPs etc. When this was pointed out, the locals said, "If they are really interested, they can always solve these small problems, may be just with a phone call. But at present they all are busy solving their own problems and are not worried about commoners’ problems. But election is on the threshold, they present themselves with all ‘sincerity’ and ‘commitment’ on each door. It’s real high time that we gave second thought before electing such people."