The Hindu : More water from Singur on the way

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 09, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad

More water from Singur on the way

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD April 8. With the recent commissioning of sump-cum-pump house at Singur, water supply to the city has increased by 5 mgd. In the coming days, another 3 to 4 mgd will be drawn from Singur by way of increasing the height of Jackwell -II and full utilisation of the pumping capacity.

This was stated by the HMWSSB Managing Director, M.G. Gopal, at a review meeting here on Tuesday. He assured that the present supply of 130 mgd would be maintained up to June middle. The crucial period would be between June and August by when some inflows were expected in the reservoirs. However, Mr. Gopal ruled out the possibility of filling up of Osmansagar and Himayatsagar entirely in the coming monsoons.

The meeting convened by the Tourism Minister, T. Srinivas Yadav, turned out to be an occasion for political one-upmanship. MLAs and corporators tried to outdo each other in bringing out the gravity of the situation.

From serious debate to sarcasm and humorous poetry - the discussions spanned a wide spectrum of emotions. There was also exaggeration aplenty with some of the elected representatives stating that there was no water in their areas for the last one month. An amazed Mr. Srinivas Yadav shot back "how are people surviving then.'' He agreed that there was water scarcity in the city, but to say that there was no water at all was a plain lie, he said.

At the end of the marathon discussion lasting six hours, the result was not very heartening. The Minister and officials merely stated their well-known positions. "People have lot of expectations from this meeting. At least, make some announcements,'' pleaded the Majlis MLA, Asaduddin Owaisi.

Sharing the concern of the legislators and corporators, Mr. Srinivas Yadav assured that money would not be a constraint in mitigating the drinking water problem. The Government had released Rs. 22 crores till now to improve the water position. The Irrigation Corporation had laid 200 power borewells in the city in the first phase and another 200 would be sunk in the second phase. Additional tankers would be engaged, if necessary.

Mr. Srinivas Yadav agreed that several areas, particularly those in the Old City, were getting polluted water. Top priority would be given to tackle this problem. He would visit various areas in the city to find out the water problem along with the local legislators and corporators starting with Purnapul and Begum Bazar tomorrow. He said the new commercial complexes coming up in the city would not be provided water fro next two months.

Earlier, the Chandrayangutta MLA, Akbaruddin Owaisi, dubbed the meeting "eyewash'' and said such conferences had become a ritual. Supply of contaminated water had already claimed a life in Bandlaguda and yet the Government was not serious about checking pollution. Government hospitals were ill-equipped to treat the affected cases. The severity of the problem could be seen from the number of GI cases pouring into the three hospitals run by his party.

The Charminar MLA, Asaduddin Owaisi, asked the Government to provide at least safe and protected drinking water. The Government should take it up as a challenge and try to mitigate the problem. Nearly 30 to 40 per cent of the areas in the city were un-served where even tankers could not go. He suggested construction of static tanks.

The Malakpet MLA, Indrasena Reddy, suggested sinking 6.5 inches borewells instead of 4.5 inches. He asked the Minister to ensure that the bores were laid simultaneously in all Assembly constituencies. Other MLAs -- Premsingh Rathod, K. Laxman, Mumtaz Ahmed Khan and Syed Sajjad -- also spoke.

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