Silvester D’Souza
Daijiworld Media Network – Kundapur (SP)
Kundapur, Apr 30: A place called Guddeangady, which falls under Yadady Matyady village within Hombady Mandady gram panchayat limits in the taluk, remains thirsty for drinking water every summer. This recurring problem of thirst has gone unquenched since the last three years. The villagers are becoming increasingly angry at the total apathy shown by both the gram panchayat and people’s representatives to this grave problem.
Over 125 families live in Guddeangady, out of which, over 35 families belong to people from scheduled castes and tribes. The area turns bone dry during every summer, and the people are left with no water, either to satiate drinking water needs, or for other purposes.
The area got an overhead water tank over two decades back. In the past, water was being pumped to this tank from a rusted tube well standing by the side of Belur Road, about 2.5 km away from Guddeangady. As the water source there has dried up, water supply to the area was stopped. Officials of mines and geology department claim that Guddeangady and surrounding areas are bereft of any underground water source to draw water from.
The people of Guddeangady had led representations several times to the gram panchayat, taluk panchayat, and ministers, seeking sympathetic consideration of their water woes. However, all these efforts went down the drain, and at present, whenever someone approaches officials with this problem, their stock response is to ask the villagers to show the source from which their thirst for water can be satiated.
While the residents of this place are left with the only option of cursing their fate and suffering untold miseries year after year, tragically the officials have not taken the issue with the seriousness it deserves.
Anand Yadady, convener of Dalit Sangharsh Samiti’s Yadady Matyady unit, says that petitions handed over to the gram panchayat explaining the water problems faced by the people here are getting rebuttals from adamant officials. ‘The area is reeling under drought. If the villagers do not get water within a week, we will be compelled to organize protest demonstration in front of the gram panchayat office. If the issue remains unresolved thereafter, we will hold dharna in front of the office of the district deputy commissioner,’ he said.
Santosh Kumar, village development officer of Hombady Mandady gram panchayat said that a sum of Rs 1.15 lac has already been sanctioned for mitigating the problems of these villagers, and that within a week, a tube well would be dug by the side of the earlier tube well, and drinking water supply would be resumed thereafter.