Daijiworld Media Network - Puttur (SP)

Puttur, Apr 16: Although two rivers are located by the side of Uppinangady in the taluk, people living in villages on their banks suffer for want of clean drinking water. After waiting for long for relief from this ordeal, a villager named S M Muhammed Rafique, son of Dawood from Nekkilady village near Uppinangady has filed a suit in Janata Nyayalaya to establish right to drinking water.

Water is being supplied to Nekkilady villagers through jackwell from the river. But this water is not purified before being supplied. A vented dam has been built across River Kumaradhara at Nekkilady, without providing for supplying drinking water to villages located near this dam, the villagers rue. Te complainant has alleged that providing water from the region to a far off town at a time when the villages living on the river bank are suffering for want of potable water, is tantamount to practice of autocracy. Since ancient times, water from rivers like Netravati and Kumaradhara are used first for drinking and then for agricultural activities. With the setting up of mega power plants near the river, an environment in which villagers are failing to assert their right to drinking water has been created, he explained.

Rafique also said that on account of the vented dam built across River Kumaradhara, underground water table in areas that are dependent on this river has dwindled. As such, water stored in this dam should be provided to Nekkilady panchayat for being supplied to citizens, he has argued.

It is learnt that at a meeting headed by the district deputy commissioner held last year on this issue, villagers had requested to provide drinking water to Nekkilady from this dam, but this demand has not been met.

The said case stands registered in permanent Janata Nyayalaya. The petitioner has named Dakshina Kannada deputy commissioner, zilla panchayat chief executive officer, Nekkilady gram panchayat, Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Sewerage Board, as well as Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation as defendants.