MNAC office locked
Jamshedpur: As the stage is being set for the inauguration of Mango Water Drinking Project protests have irrupted from different section of society. The project has missed a number of deadlines. The initial completion date was August 2011. The project is scheduled for inauguration in December 15.
Under the banner of Mango Vikash Samtiti several activists handed over memorandum to the deputy commissioner. The move was supported Around 100 residents of Mango under the patronage of JVM district president Firoz Khan marched to the Mango-based office of the Mango Notified Area Committee (MNAC).
The local urban body which will look after water supply to households and locked up the office to protest against irregularities in the laying of water pipelines and alleged threat by MNAC special officer of disconnecting old connections after starting of the new water project.
MNAC has asked people to clear pending water bills for availing new connections. People are agitated as old bills runs to thousands and have been charged for water service.
Committee Chairman Onkarnath Singh handed a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner Dr. Amitabh Kaushal. He noted that during testing on the streets of Mango is visible of water spread all over. The roads and drains in order to lay a pipe line has been damaged, the repair work has not begun .
East Singhbhum deputy commissioner Amitabh Kaushal later in the afternoon held a review meeting on Mango water project at the district collectorate.
The Mango project — aiming to supply 48 million litres per day — started in 2005 as a public-private partnership between state drinking water and sanitation department and Tata Steel subsidiary Jusco.
At present, against a demand for over six million litres of water a day, three lakh Mango residents receive less than a third, that is, less than two million litres.
The Rs 64.18 crore ambitious drinking water project, as per affidavit filed by East Singhbhum district administration before Jharkhand High Court in December last year, was to commence from March 31, 2013.
The project was mentioned in the 2005-06 budget with an estimated cost of Rs 25 crore. The foundation stone was laid by then Governor K Shankarnarayan in 2009.
Its earlier scheduled deadline was August 2011.New pipelines have been laid along a stretch of nearly 148km in Mango and will see distribution from the six water towers at Sankosai, Gandhi Maidan, Old Purulia Road, Pardih (near Big Bazaar), MGM Medical College and Jawaharnagar.