Siliguri, Jan. 22: An acute water crisis that has hit three wards of Siliguri Municipal Corporation has turned into a political issue with councillors of the ruling CPM and the Opposition busy hurling accusations at each other.

Opposition leaders feel the residents of wards 22, 23 and 24 are being “punished” only because the local councillors belong to the Opposition.

“These three wards have been under the corporation since its inception, unlike the 17 other wards, which were added to the corporation later in 1994. Yet these wards are deprived of basic amenities just because they have chosen to ignore the leftists,” said Sadananda Das, Congress councillor of ward 22.

Wards 22, 23 and 24 still depend on the roadside taps in each locality for drinking water.

“Applications for domestic water connections are turned down by corporation authorities citing reasons like court cases regarding land, disputed tender distribution or cash crunch. But tenders have been passed and amounts sanctioned for constructing a water tank,” Das said.

Mukul Sengupta, mayor-in-council for water supply, said the construction of an overhead water tank would begin shortly as legal formalities had been sorted out. “Work on the water tank will start shortly. We are not aware of any water scarcity in these areas as we are supplying water in all the three wards through deep tubewells in Dabgram to meet the demand,” he said.

“Work on another water project, costing us Rs 52 lakh, will begin from January 27 to supply water to the wards 45, 46 and 47.”

The drinking water problem in the 17 wards, which had been added to the corporation from the panchayat status, has worsened with no roadside taps in the area.

According to statistics available with the SMC, Rs 17.45 crore had been earmarked for 2001-2002 to build the infrastructure for water supply in the 17 added zones. The amount was slashed reduced to Rs 16.40 crore in the current fiscal.

“Instead of increasing the budget in areas where development is needed, the corporation is cutting down the expenses,” Das said.

However, the SMC authority sticks to the point that they have made the financial plan according to the requirement.