Village without drinking water for last four months

Dharamshala, July 29 (UNI) Alleging that political rivalry between Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and senior Congress leader Vijai Singh Mankotia was affecting their daily lives, the residents of a village in Kangra district said they were without drinking water supply for the last four months.

Ward member and Mahila Mandal Pradhan of Laliata village, Sawitri Thakur, alleged they were without drinking water supply since April after a submersible water pump of the IPH department went out of order as the village falls in the assembly constituency of Mr Mankotia.

She said the villagers had been running from pillar to post for the last four months with a request to repair the water pump and restore water supply to their village, but in vain.

Since the village had no other water supply source, the villagers had to fetch water from the Chambi Khad, which was situated down the hill, Ms Thakur said.

''I'm paying a sum of Rs 100 for the last month for bringing two buckets of water daily from the Khad,'' she said.

Another villager and former driver of former union minister Sukh Ram, Baghat Singh, said elderly men and women of the village were suffering the most due to non availability of drinking water supply.

Since the village falls in the Shahpur assembly segment of Mr Mankotia, the state government has been ignoring the villagers' demand of repairing the water pump, said a villager, refusing to identify himself.

He said rivalry between two political leaders should not affect the common people, since they were living in the Shahpur assembly segment not due to choice but compulsion.

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