BJP leader demands clean drinking water for residents

RANCHI: Jharkhand BJP vicepresident Deepak Prakash turned up at the janata darbar (public hearing) on Wednesday demanding clean drinking water for the Harmu Housing Colony where the residents are dependent on chemical-laden underground water.

The public hearing was organised by labour and employment minister Raj Paliwal and drinking water and sanitation minister CP Choudhary.

A Ranchi Municipal Corporation team visited the ward number 37 and 29 after the residents complained to the councillor about foul smelling, dirty brown water from the underground boring facility.

“Due to unavailability of supply water, the residents are dependent on underground water for their needs,” said Prakash, who is also the trustee of Harmu Housing Resident’s Association.

He said a chemical test of the underground water of the area showed the presence of lower than normal pH levels (a numeric scale used to specify the acidity of a solution).

The test also revealed that the water contained high levels of iron. The hardness which should be between 200 and 500 was found to be more than 1,000 in this case—which doctors say can affect the kidney and liver.

The ministers assured Prakash that the government would take this case up on priority basis.

In another case, a visually impaired resident of Pakur, Gopal Tudu, said he wants government’s support to build a boarding school for the blind in his Bakshishah village.

“It is saddening that there is no educational facility for the blind in our district. People with disabilities too have a right to learn and build a future for them. I want to open the school till Class 10 and provide children with at least the basic education,” said Tudu, who has studied till Class 10 from Bhagalpur.

On hearing Tudu’s story, Paliwal spoke to the Pakur deputy commissioner over phone and asked him to see how he can be helped.

Due to unavailability of supply water, the residents are dependent on chemical-laden underground water for drinking purpose DEEPAK PRAKASH, state BJP vice-president

DIWAKAR PRASAD/HT PHOTO State ministers Raj Paliwal (left) and Chandraprakash Choudhary (second from left) at a public hearing at the chief minister’s secretariat in Ranchi on Wednesday.