By: Vijay Kumar Verma, Editor-ICN Group
SHIMLA: Famous tourist town of Himachal Pradesh and earstwhile Queen of Hills, Shimla is these days reeling under acute water crisis not only affecting the residents but also adversely affecting the tourism business. As hotels are not able to provide water the tourists are returnig home.
Normally getting hotel bookings during the season in Shimla remains a big problem, many a bookings have been cancelled by the tourists, inform some hotelliers.Taking stock of the situation, the state government has ordered early closure of schools for summer vacations in order to reduce pressure on water supply.
The incumbent government squarely blames mismanagement and lack of farsightedness on the part of outgoing congress party which has held the reins of the state for a long time. The Health Minister Vipin Parmar claims that no effective step had been taken by the congress which also remained in power in MC also for a long time.
Parmar said that the situation today would have not been so if previous congress government had made any detailed project for resolving water shortage in Shimla.
Shimla residents inform that all the previous governments kept making false promises to people regarding bringing water from Kol dam, Pabbar and Satluj rivers however no concrete step were ever taken.
The ongoung crises is the result of inadequate snowfall and rain fall this year leading to drying up of natural water sources while the water level has also gone down affecting many a drinking water projects.
To ease the problem, Chief Minister is also monitoring the situation in high level meetings and a committee has been constituted headed by Chief Secretary and report regarding water distribution is being taken every day. The authorities inform that the city has been divided into three zones and water is being distributed according to schedule.
The Central government is also serious about this issue and has sought suggestions from the state for solving this issue permanently.
