More than four years after moving into the new campus at Kuttaiyur, the Government Arts College in Mettupalayam has only now been promised drinking water supply by the authorities.
Though water from four borewells are being used for other purposes, the college, which is located at a considerable height in an undulating terrain, had to put up with absence of drinking water supply.
Though the water from the borwells has been tested to be safe for drinking, parents had expressed reservations, it is learnt. Students and faculty either bring drinking water themselves or purchase packaged drinking water sold outside the campus, spending money every day.
The parents and the public in Kuttaiyur where the college is located had been petitioning the elected representatives, the local body, State Ministers, and also the Chief Minister’s Cell. As an outcome of the repeated representations, the Karamadai Municipality carried out an inspection three months ago, and earmarked ₹13 lakh for providing drinking water pipeline from the general funds, it is learnt.
According to a senior official of Karamadai Municipality, the approval for the project will be secured from the Directorate of Municipal Administration in a week’s time for laying a pipeline to the campus for the benefit of over 1,200 students enrolled in nine UG programmes and one PG programne.
The college is also learnt to have approached the adjacent panchayat for extending drinking water supply. Though the local body did not refuse, there was the issue of fulfilling future requirement for increasing population under the Jal Jeevan Mission.
Thanks to the upgrade of Karamadai town panchayat into a municipality during 2021, the local body has leverage to tap into the general funds. Now that the municipality has taken tangible steps, the sense of relief is palpable among students and the faculty, according to the parents.
