HC seeks report on Gaya water crisis

Gaya: Taking serious note of the acute water crisis prevailing in the town and alleged anomalies in the implementation of the project to lay new pipelines and construct a mega water tower, the Patna high court has directed the PHED to submit a status report and action plan to meet the crisis.
The direction, according to high court lawyer Brajesh Kumar, was given on Tuesday by acting Chief Justice Iqbal Ahmed Ansari.The department has been directed to submit its reply on April 29. "The high court directive came during the preliminary hearing of a PIL filed in the court narrating the water woes of Gayaites and gross anomalies in the execution of the water supply scheme," said the lawyer.
One RTI activist Brajnandan Pathak had filed the PIL. As on date only about 40% of the nearly 70,000 registered holdings of the municipal corporation get tap water while the remaining 60% households depend on privately pumped ground water. The water table in the town, in the last several weeks has registered an alarming fall.
Municipal Corporation sources said that instead of installing the 50 submersible pumps at a depth of 80 feet, the company kept it at a depth of only about 40 feet thereby making the pumping machines virtually redundant during the period when the water table goes down. "Not only the water tower suffers from construction defects, new pipes were also not laid in most of the areas covered by the scheme," said a source.
PHED, it may be recalled handed over the contract to the private company and post execution, the facility was to be transferred to the Gaya municipal corporation (GMC) for maintenance. But the GMC refused to take over the half-finished project.
Asked why the GMC has so far refused to formally take over the facility developed by PHED through the private company, Gaya municipal commissioner Vijay Kumar said the job suffered from several qualitative as well as quantitative shortcomings.