Water crisis in Malda leads villages to boycott

MALDA, April 25: Water crisis in Malda district is fast turning into an issue in the panchayat polls. About 1400 voters of Mandal para (booth no 173) in Habibpur Block, who are facing water crisis, today decided to boycott the panchayat polls.Villagers alleged that the political leaders assure round the year drinking water before every election but forget their assurances after the polls. According to them, the CPI-M in the last panchayat polls had assu-red to arrange drinking water but the assurance was ignored after it fared badly in polls in the area. The CPI-M has a strong support base in certain areas of Habibpur but the BJP came to power in the Haib-pur panchayat samity in the last polls with the help of the Congress and the Trinamul. The scarcity of water in the district is also triggering clashes. Yesterday, two groups of villagers at Alal in Gazole Block clashed over the right of irrigation and water distribution. Five persons were injured in the clash. Some of them had to be admitted in the Malda district hospital. The dry spell continues since last week here drying up sources of drinking water across the district, mainly in Barind belt comprising Gazole, Habibpur, Bamongola Blocks. The water level of the local rivers and tributaries has gone down abnormally from the second week of April creating problem of river lifting irrigation as well. n sns