Thirsty Pune voters’ threat: ‘No water, no vote’

In an ominous development on Saturday, villagers of Khairewadi in Pune’s Shivajinagar, who have been suffering due to a water crisis, threatened to boycott the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra if their issue was not resolved.

The nearly 10,000 residents have been protesting and highlighting the erratic, insufficient and low-pressure water supply in their localities.

They said that despite repeated complaints to the authorities, no remedial measures had been taken by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC).

Losing patience, they erected a huge banner on the main road with the legend: “No Water, No Vote. Resolve our water problems, or we shall boycott elections.”

This warning alarmed the politicians of different political parties who have been campaigning for the May 13 Lok Sabha elections.

A resident said that for several months they have been fighting to get proper water supply, but there are shortages, low-pressure or at times non-availability of water, making their lives miserable.

They pointed out that the situation was set to get worse after the onset of summer.

The villagers said that on most days they have to make do with water supplied by tankers but they have to waste hours to meet their basic needs for the day, and demanded that their PMC water supply should be put on track.

Compounding their problem is the ongoing Pune Metro work on University Road and the construction projects which are said to be eating into the Shivajinagar peoples’ water supplies, irking them enough to consider a poll boycott.