GUWAHATI: The Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) is reeling under an acute water crisis due to water being siphoned at the Panbazar Pani Tanki water treatment plant.
While the hospital authorities said that there had been a considerable crisis in water due to “erratic supply”, attendants and patients expressed that they are having a hard time in the hospital due to the crisis.
“There is seemingly lack of water supply and we have apprised the Public Health Engineering (PHE) department regarding the same. Right now, no official work of the hospital is getting hampered, but we are only managing somehow,” Ramen Talukdar, superintendent of the GMCH told G Plus.
According to reliable sources, the PHE department has given away about 367 unauthorized lines from the Panbazar water treatment plant that has a capacity of 25 million litres daily. This was exposed in an internal inquiry conducted by the department months back.
“About 2.5 million litres of the total water purified by the treatment plant was being siphoned daily through the unauthorized connections. During the inquiry, the department found a racket at play that had provided those connections at a cost of around 3-4 lakh each,” the source said.
Amal Bhagawati, The PHE executive engineer under whose charge the alleged siphoning was conducted, has been transferred to Haflong.
“Several other employees are also under scanner,” the source said.
More details on this story to follow in the coming issue of G Plus on 18th August
