A colony struggles to avail basic facilities

COIMBATORE: In this day and age it is hard to imagine that an entire colony in a city lacks basic facilities such as water connections, drainage and toilet facilities. However, for residents of Dharmaraj Nagar, this is a reality they are struggling to change but to no avail. Despite repeated attempts to improve their quality of life, the callous attitude of the authorities has forced residents to believe that they have been sidelined because they belong to backward communities.
“We still don’t have water supply in our homes. Sewage water pervades the streets as we do not have drainage facilities. None of the officials seem to be concerned about our plight,” says R Sundar, a resident of Dharmaraj Nagar. The colony situated in the centre of ward no 18 in Madukkarai Town Panchayat is besieged by serious civic issues. Residents look on helplessly, as they see development all around them.
Around 300 families have been residing in the locality for over three decades. They have consistently approached panchayat officials to improve their situation, but not much has changed over the years. They allege that it is only their colony that has been denied basic facilities while areas surrounding them have water connections and drainage facilities.
Residents had submitted a petition to the District Collector M Karunagaran on Monday demanding basic amenities. C Dalitkumar, a resident of the Dharmaraj Nagar said that though they had registered several complaints, no action was taken. “We constitute half the ward. Most of us belong to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. The other areas seem to have the facilities we have been denied. We have to depend on wells for water and it is a long walk to collect it,” he said. Though there are public taps, supply is restricted to once a week or fortnight.
S Sivan, a resident of the area for around 30 years says that they collect water from the nearby places. They don’t even have adequate toilet facilities. “We have to go to defecate in the bushes. Though there is a public toilet in the colony, it has been locked by the panchayat,” he said.
C Subbulakshmi who has been a resident for more than 15 years talks about the difficulties for the women of the colony. “It is really embarrassing for us to do our morning ablutions out in the open. Ours is the only area in the panchayat to face this issue. It is also very tiring and difficult to carry water from wells,” she said.
However, MP Harikrishna, who lives in the ward refutes the alleged discrimination. He said the colony did not have water supply because there were no distribution lines in the area. “As it will take some time to lay the pipelines, we are construction three bore wells which will be functional in a few weeks. The toilet was locked after it was damaged by some miscreants. The area has seen much development over the years. Yes, there are some civic issues that need to be addressed and we are looking into it,” he said.