Rajasthan Congress MLA threatens dharna over drinking water issue in Barmer
A large number of people, including women met with the MLA on Saturday and raised the issue after which he held a telephonic conversation with the district collector and apprised him of the issue
Three-time Congress legislator from Rajasthan’s Barmer Mevaram Jain has threatened to sit on dharna against his own party government.
Levelling corruption charges on the waterworks department, Jain said that people of his area are facing severe scarcity of drinking water and waterworks department officials are not paying attention towards it.
“I have asked the official many times to take note of it, but they repeatedly ignored it. People are fed up with the working of waterworks officials. They have completely failed to address the drinking water needs of the region. Due to their negligent and unpathetic attitude, I will sit on a one-day dharna on September 15,” the MLA said.
A large number of people, including women met with the MLA on Saturday and raised the issue after which he held a telephonic conversation with the district collector and apprised him of the issue.
Jain said that he spoke to the district collector and told him that the waterworks department was not working towards helping the people. The MLA also accused the department officials of being corrupt.
“People of rural areas are crying for water. The water mafia is openly selling drinking water but no action has been taken. I have many times asked the waterworks department officials but they are not working towards improving the situation. They are corrupt and useless,” Jain said, according to the people aware of the matter.
“The waterworks department officials are not concerned with the public. I am tired of meetings. I am raising the issue with you. Look into the matter and solve their (people’s) problems,” he added, said the people mentioned above.
According to the people familiar with the matter, for the past six months, people in the Barmer area have been facing severe drinking water scarcity.
After the MLA threatened to protest, the waterworks department chief engineer reached Barmer and took stock of the situation. He too spoke to the officials and directed them to improve the drinking water situation within a week in the region, said the people mentioned above.
