Blocked drains choke water taps at Pune station

Passengers at Pune station can forget about getting clean drinking water from water booths, which are clogged as the drainage system has gone for a toss. The maintenance staff seems to be in no hurry to get this problem fixed quickly.

Moreover, most watre joints are unclean and are plagued with leakages. Some of the taps are not functional and many do not even have established water connections.

Clogged drains have led water to stagnate in basins at the station.

Waste material has clogged the drains filling the basins with water. This sorry state has forced passengers to buy packaged drinking water bottles. "It is the duty of the railways to give us the basic facility of drinking water. Every time I arrive to board a train at this station, I am forced to buy a bottled water because of the unhygienic conditions of the water joints," said Nikhil Kakade, a frequent passenger.

Another passenger, Shirish Jain, said, "I travel with my entire family of eight and I cannot afford to buy water bottles for all of them, so we depend on the water booths at the station. But we get dirty water there, which also has a bad odour. We travel with little children. How can we give them this water to drink?"

When mid-day approached the maintenance staff at the station, no one was ready to speak on the issue. Railway spokesperson Y K Singh, though, said, "During summer, the railways fall short of manpower and there is extra burden of work. I will look into this issue and inform the concerned department. We are trying our best to maintain cleanliness near these joints, but even the public should act responsibly by not throwing waste into the water basins."