Supply of water to every household through taps is still months away but all towns and habitations in erstwhile Adilabad district are recording an abnormal increase in flow of dust thanks to the debris and soil being left behind by the ongoing work under the Mission Bhagiratha.
Adilabad town has turned dusty owing to the excavations taking place in every street and bylane to lay the water supply pipeline under the Telangana State Drinking Water Supply Programme or Mission Bhagiratha.
Ironically, the hazard to public health is a result of the negligence of the Public Health Department which is overseeing the execution of the work in a greater part of the town.
The department has not only failed to clear the debris produced through use of machines in narrow bylanes but also fill up the pits properly.
Long wait
“How long do we have to suffer this hell,” a resident, who has had the road in front of his house dug out recently, G. Karunakar Reddy said. It could be a few months as only 37 km of the 160 km length of pipeline to be laid in Adilabad town is complete and the deadline for completion of the project is September.
“In the narrow lanes and bylanes in towns and larger villages, the government could have laid the pipelines by manual digging instead of using machines. Manual digging would have been precise in dimensions and not unnecessarily wide which is the case with machines,” opined advocate and notary P. Rajeshwar who lives by the side of a much damaged narrow lane in Vidyanagar locality in Adilabad town.
Feign ignorance
The departments involved in execution of the Mission Bhagiratha intra-village and intra-town works, the Rural Water Supply and the Public Health, feign ignorance about any ‘upheaval’ of soil. When specifically pointed out they assured that all debris would be cleared and roads restored.
Public Health department Assistant Executive Engineer T. Omprakash said road restoration will be done once the government sanctions money for the purpose. “We have sent estimates for ₹ 6.5 crore for road restoration works,” he revealed.
