Drinking water problem: Mayor pulls up SMC officials

Siliguri: The water crisis continues in Siliguri even during the festival season. City dwellers raised the complaint to Mayor on his ‘Talk to Mayor’s programme.

The Mayor felt embarrassed when one after another call came with drinking water supply-related problems.

Mayor became angry at the officials and he reprimanded them on the live programme by saying that they were not doing any work on time.

However, Gautam Deb, the Mayor assured the callers of resolving the issue permanently, but for the time being, he ordered SMC officials to send tanks to those wards where a shortage of water is there.

Most of the 47 wards of the city have drinking water problems. Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) sends drinking water tanks to various wards as a temporary arrangement.

But on this day the Mayor received numerous calls about the water crisis in the Talk to Mayor programme which was held on Saturday at SMC office.

There is a drinking water crisis in ward number 21, 27, 28, 5, 41, 42, 37. In some wards, water does come regularly, in some, water flow is very low. Many people have to buy drinking water.

Pritam Roy, a resident of Ward No. 21, called at ‘Talk to Mayor’ and said: “It’s been almost 2 months that water is not being supplied to my house. I have informed the counselor about this many times. But the problem remains the same. I started buying water. But now, I am unable to buy more water. Please make some arrangements.”

Paramita Sarkar told the Mayor: “The supply stopped before Durga Puja. We have to face a lot of trouble during the festival. Arrange water quickly.”

After receiving these calls, Gautam Deb expressed his anger on the officers who were with him. He gave them clear instructions to solve the water problems quickly.

“The issue of drinking water will be solved only after the installation of an alternative intake tank. We get less water than we require every day, so, we need some time to resolve the issue permanently. Until then, we are sending water tanks to the wards,” said the Mayor.