People face acute drinking water scarcity in Yerragondapalem
Villagers complaining about the drinking water problem to YSRCP Yerragondapalem in-charge Tatiparthi Chandrasekhar at Chintala Agraharam in Dorna
Yerragondapalem: Though the summer is yet to arrive, the people in the villages of Yerragondapalem Assembly constituency are already experiencing an acute shortage of drinking water. The lack of interest on the part of tanker owners to supply drinking water, as the government failed to clear the pending bills, added to the woes of locals.
Yerragondapalem is one of the rain deficient constituencies in the backward western part of the Prakasam district. The RWS&S department supplies drinking water to many villages in the constituency through tankers.
However, the contractors supplying the water are complaining that they are suffering as the government is not clearing arrears of bills. Bills worth crores of rupees are pending with the government, they point out.
Local MLA and Minister Dr Audimulapu Suresh managed to get a portion of the bills released after the contractors met him many times.
Last week, the local contractors protested at Kunta, on National Highway 765 demanding that the government clear their bills. They said that they are facing trouble with the financing companies and some of their vehicles were already taken away by them.
They state that they cannot continue supplying the water if the government does not care about them. On Sunday, the people from Chintala Agraharam in Dornala mandal and Karrolla Vaidipadu in Peddaraveedu mandal staged protests on the road junction obstructing the traffic. They said that they didn’t receive water for more than a week. They said that they are bathing once in three days and now any stock of drinking water left.
The locals identified and stopped the vehicle of Tatipathi Chandrasekhar, the YSRCP in-charge of the Yerragondapalem, on the road and brought their problem to his notice.
He said that he had already spoken to the District Collector on the issue and it would be resolved in a couple of days. He assured them that he would bear the expenditure of providing the drinking water to them in the meantime.