To remind Hema of her poll promise, Mathura youths climbs water tank in Sholay style

AGRA: Taking a leaf from cine star turned politician, Hema Malini’s hit Bollywood flick, Sholay, two Mathura youths turned into Veerus, climbing atop an overhead water tank on Friday, not with a bottle of whisky but kerosene, and threatened to commit suicide in protest against the MP’s failure to fulfill her poll promise of ensuring portable and safe drinking water for the district.
High tension drama prevailed in Village Nagla-Asha, when the duo, Ramveer and Govind, ‘enacted’ the Sholay scene. It took the villagers, the police and the local administration officials more than three hours to convince the youth to come down. They however, relented only after local officials assured them to apprise the MP about their grievance.
\According to villagers, the duo had climbed the water tank that was constructed outside the village a few months ago for supply of potable water to the area. However, till date no water supply has started, forcing villagers to consume hard and contaminated water from hand pumps.
Villagers said many of them have to walk 4 to 5 kilometers everyday in this scorching heat to fetch drinking water and the administration has done nothing to resolve the problem. They said Hema Malini had made big promises during her election campaign but nothing had been done in reality.
Shiv Shankar Verma, Chairman Nagar Palika Sonkh, said availability of drinking water is a crucial problem here and people are forced to consume water with high (4000-5000) Total Dissolved Solids (TDS). Incidentally, the WHO recommends that potable water should not have more than 500-600 TDS.
In fact this problem is all pervasive in Mathura district and Hema Malini, during her poll campaign, had promised to ensure safe and adequate quantity of water for every home in the constituency. According to locals, piped water supply is not available in colonies on the periphery of the towns and people are solely dependent on groundwater for daily consumption.
The water problems have been compounded by the falling water table, as many hand and submersible pumps have become redundant. Villagers say that water is not available even at 150 feet at many places. They say that there has been a massive spurt in number of water borne diseases in the area due to consumption of contaminated groundwater.