Water woes: Irate villagers stage rail roko

Jharsugada: Irate residents of Lechuapada village under Lakhanpur block in Jharsuguda district staged a rail roko and held a protest against acute shortage of drinking water in the village on Sunday.

Reports said a large number of residents of the village particularly women and children on Saturday assembled at Lechuapada and squatted on the rail track not allowing the goods train carrying coal of the Odisha Power Generation Corporation (OPGC). They also and raised slogans against OPGC and concerned officials for not taking steps to provide adequate water supply to their village.

They alleged though the OPGC is providing water to the village but it is not sufficient. Though the villagers had taken up the matter with the OPGC chief Manoj Das, the latter rejected their demand saying the Corporation can provide 10 litres of water to each villager as per the government norm.