April 08, 2018: Glaring negligence of duties by the Government employees and apathy to the plight of people was exposed by school kids today. Around 100 children walked down to Kanchanpur from Jampui Hill in North Tripura District today morning demanding potable water. Sources said, students of Vangmun St Thomas School assembled at Kanchanpur SDM office in the early morning and pitched hard for supply of drinking water in the school hostel. Later authority relented and conceded the demand of the students.
One of the agitating school children, Nelson Reang alleged, “We lodged complaints with the local authority several times, but no one bothered to pay heed to our demand. Every year we are facing the same problem and suffer”. Angry face of agitating students was telling abject failures and negligence of concerned Officials. “Concerned employees shoud feel ashamed as kids had to resort to walk 40-km to press for demand for potable water”, a Kanchanpur based resident said.
Sources said, students set off on foot at 3.30 am from the hostel for Kanchanpur. After a 40-km long walk, students reached SDM office at 7am. The night guard spotted them and immediately contacted the DCM Naba Kishore Jamatia. “Initially, the DCM started threatening and snubbing the kids – however, determined stance of the students forced him to change his strategies”, alleged sources. Sensing that the situation was fast spilling out of the control, Jamatia called up SDO of DWS. After an intense discussion, DCM and DWS SDO assured that authority would ensure supply of potable water within two days.
The students used to drink water collected from rivulets in absence of potable water supply. However, every year with the onset of dry season, rivulets get dry up causing harrowing time for students and local residents, Nelson said. Alleging that foods served in Mid Day Meal are of poor quality, students also demanded improvement in the quality of food served with immediate effect.
