Residents of Rajpora village in this northern Kashmir town on Friday held protests against Jal Shakti department for failing to ensure regular supply of potable drinking water to the area.
A group of residents including women staged the protest on Handwara-Rajpora road, bringing traffic to complete halt for several hours.
The women protestors alleged that the department has miserably failed to ensure water supply to their area. “Every day we have to walk several km on foot to fetch water from a nearby stream,” said Mubeena, a local.
The protestors said they have taken up the issues with the authorities concerned on several occasions in the past, but to no avail. “We have been forced to hit the streets as government has failed to mitigate out problems,” said another protestor.
Amid the protests the authorities were forced to temporarily stop the “Back to Village-3” Programme in the village. However the locals were pacified after assurances from the authorities.