Women stage protest over drinking water woes

Atmakur (Kurnool): Finding fault with the Nagara Panchayat authorities, irate women armed with empty pitchers and pots stormed into the emergency meeting of the civic body held here on Wednesday demanding drinking water and seeking explanation on how the civic body is going to tide over the drinking water crisis over the next two months.
The demonstrators condemned using the police force to disperse them while agitating peacefully in support of their demands and described that it had reflected dictatorial style of functioning of the ruling party.
With people barging into the meeting hall, several unruly scenes were witnessed at the meeting. The civic body staff had a tough time rescuing civic body commissioner Ibrahim Saheb and chairperson Noor Ahmed from the demonstrators. The protestors accused authorities of being in deep slumber ignoring their problems. They complained that people living on Chityala and Raja Streets of the 13th ward did not get drinking water for the past one week. The women dubbed the authorities as useless as they were unable to resolve the drinking problem but indulging in publicity getting them photographed near the dried up drinking water sources.
They accused the governing body of protecting ruling party middlemen’s interests as they were approving only those projects that help them siphon off funds. Disrupting water supply to weaker section colonies reflected inefficiency of the nagar panchayat chairperson and pointed out that the taps had gone dry and condition of drainages was messy.
Taking objection to police dispersing them, they threatened to launch a major movement demanding drinking water supply.