RailEnquiry

For more than a week now, residents of Bagbera in Jamshedpur are literally staring at the irony of a water-starved locality — wanton wastage of water.And to cap it all, civic guardians of the city are surprisingly oblivious to the wastage from a leaking pipe and a tap that have been reduced to a free-for-all as a result of pilfering of parts of the distribution network under the railway.Bagbera was on the boil just over a fortnight ago, witnessing a demonstration and a two-day fast over water scarcity that forced the district administration to draw up contingency plans for distribution through tankers in the southern fringes of the city.The leakage points, both in the network of South Eastern Railway (SER), Tatanagar, are suspected to be the handiwork of miscreants from nearby parched areas.The point near South Eastern Railway School, Bagbera, has its nozzle missing at a community tap, leading to water spraying out endlessly from 6am to 7pm.“The nozzle is missing for more than a week. We suspect someone from the neighbouring localities stole it. People from various slums reeling under water crisis now use the water gushing out from the tap for bathing and also to fill up containers,” said a rail employee who resides in one of the quarters.The other leakage point is near the Bagbera railway colony, where a 250-metre-long pipeline has been punctured, causing water to gush out.

The rail employee, who did not want to be named, said he noticed someone damaging the pipeline around two weeks ago. He added that here too slum dwellers turned up to bathe and wash their utensils and clothes.

Subodh Jha, the convener of Sampurna Ghagidih Vikas Samiti and patron of Bagbera Vikash Samity, which led the demonstration over water crisis in the area, said he had alerted railway officials about the leakage points on March 2.

“We cannot tolerate such wastage of water. We informed the area manager and the assistant engineer of Tatanagar about the leakage points. We were assured that both the points would be plugged. But no action has been taken so far,” he said.

Assistant engineer of Tatanagar R.C. Meena expressed ignorance about the leakage points but promised to take steps to plug them after consulting the inspector of works (water).

Senior divisional commercial manager (Chakradharpur) of SER K.N. Biswas also assured to take up the issue.

“We cannot tolerate such wastage at a time when there is acute water scarcity everywhere. I will take up the issue with the officials concerned and ensure the leakage points are clogged,” said Biswas.

The railway filter plant and pump house which draws water from the Kharkai supplies nearly 1.4 lakh gallons water everyday to the railway quarters that house around 20,000 people.