No water as suppliers arrested owing to rivalry between MLA and ex-head of gram panchayat
No water as suppliers arrested owing to rivalry between MLA and ex-head of gram panchayat
Residents of Hari Nagar had to bear the brunt of differences between an MLA and former gram panchayat chairman yesterday. They did not get water throughout the day as two watermen who have been supplying water in the area since the year 2000 were arrested last morning. Over 500 residents sat on a dharna opposing their arrest last night from 11 pm and gheraoed BBMP Executive Engineer Shambegowda. The duo was finally released by the police at 1 am.u00a0
|
| We won't take it: Over 500 residents gheraoed BBMP Executive Engineer Shambegowda. pic/Manjunath Hanji |
Former Gram Panchayat Chairman Venugopal had appointed two locals Nagaraj and Balaji Singh in the year 2000 during his administration to provide water to the residents but they did not get any money from the government. Owing to this, Nagaraj and Balaji used to take money from the residents at Rs 5 per month per family member.
Krishnappa from BJP, who had a few differences with Venugopal, recently got to know that the youths were appointed by Venugopal and were receiving commission as well. He asked them to stop taking money from residents but the duo opposed.
This irked Krishnappa and he ordered Subramanya Pura police to arrest them on the charge of extracting money from people. When the residents got to know about their arrests, they protested at Subramanya Pura police station and later staged a dharna at Hari Nagar at night.
Over 500 residents participated in the dharna. Krishnappa and the police reached Hari Nagar at 1 am and only then did the residents leave Shambegowda. The duo was then released by the police.
The residents asked Krishnappa not to interfere in local issues, but Krishnappa alleged that the two were extracting money from poor people and giving some amount to Venugopal out of it.
Venugopal said, "I have kept them to help the people. I never asked money from them and they are providing good water supply to the residents."
Nagaraj said, "We never shared our money with any body and never extracted money from people. The MLA is unnecessary interfering in the local matters and we strongly oppose this."
