Water woes: Hathras family to sit on hunger strike

AGRA: After getting no appropriate response from the Prime Minister, a family in Hathras, who had sought PM’s permission to end their lives a week ago due to unavailability of drinking water in their village, has now decided to go on an indefinite “hunger strike” from Thursday.
Chandrapal Singh, an MBA graduate, a resident of Nagla Maya in Hasayan block, said that they are left with no option, as they had approached everyone to resolve this issue.He said, “I called CM Yogi Adityanath’s office yesterday to seek an appointment to apprise him of the issue, but I was told that I can not meet him and they asked me to send a letter to his office”.
Singh said that when he told them that he had already written several letters in the past one year, they had no response. He claimed that the person who answered his call asked him to write another letter as long as he was alive.
“I am forced to take this step and someone will have to be responsible for the consequences. I will do my routine work without having food and water,” said Chandrapal.
Chandrapal told TOI that after publication of his news in the TOI on June 16, the local administration had made alternate arrangement of supplying drinking water through a water tank, but after three days, they stopped it. He said that local residents need a permanent solution for this problem.
Singh had earlier decided to auction himself along with several youths in the village on Republic day to raise money for supply of household water connections. The protest, however, did not take place as, it was cancelled by the local administration.
Singh said that he has been following up this issue with the administration for the past one year, but the issue is yet to resolve.
“No one can understand our plight. Government officials cannot even take a sip of the salty and hard water, which we drink to survive. Our children too consume the same water,” he said.
Senior Divisional Magistrate, Sikandrarao, Ramji Misra, admitted there was a lapse in the supply of water for a day or two but now alternate arrangements had been made.
When contacted, Hathras District Magistrate Praveen Kumar Laxkar, said that he is fully aware of the issue. He said, though the local authorities had sent a proposal of Rs 188 crore for supply of drinking water to 61 villages earlier, the same was not sanctioned by the government”. He added that now he has sent a new proposal of Rs 2.2 crore for supply of water to five villages including Chandrapal’s village and hoped that funds would be made available soon.