Hailakandi, July 23: The public health engineering department will take another day to restore water supply in Karimganj town after the main pipe on Longai road burst on Wednesday. The department partially restored water supply last evening.
Nearly 30,000 residents of Karimganj, who use approximately 200 litres daily, are having difficulty in carrying out daily tasks.
Executive engineer Prasenjit Nath said the pipes were more than 50 years old and the main pipe burst as it was unable to take the weight. He said when they tried to repair the pipes in different parts of the town, they started to break down.
The instruments required to install the pipes are not available locally. "We have to bring them from Silchar," Nath said.
The presidents of the BJP and Congress district committees, Subrata Bhattacharjee and Rajat Chakraborty, and the chairman of the district development authority, Uttam Mazumdar, met the engineers and demanded immediate repair of the pipes.
They also met deputy commissioner Pradip Kumar Talukdar and demanded water supply through tankers.
Talukdar managed to supply water through tankers in some areas with the assistance of BSF and CRPF personnel.
The commissioners of wards 4 and 12, Ratnadeep Gupta and Shikha Chakraborty, also ensured supply of mineral water bottles for residents at a nominal rate.
Some residents of Longai yesterday gheraoed the PWD road, demanding regularisation of water supply. The protest was withdrawn after an assurance that the supply would be regularised by today.
The district BJP president, Subrata Bhattacharjee, today criticised the Congress-run municipal board for the situation as it had failed to implement a Rs 23-lakh water supply project.
He said the people were facing extreme difficulty for five days.
He said the party would suggest the state government to divide Karimganj town into four zones and set up four water supply schemes to ensure regular drinking water supply. He expressed concern over the water pipes, which have not been replaced since 1967.
Former Karimganj Municipal Board chairman Manash Das also expressed anguish over the situation.
