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No
water in BIT for 96 hours, but what's new?
# Hindustan Times, July 5, 2006
By
Praduman Choubey
Sindri, July 4
Rain
may have lashed the coal belt for the past few days, but the techies of
BIT Sindri have been thirsty for the past 96 hours in absence of regular
water supply. Condition of the 60-odd
teachers and other college staff is no better as water supply in
residential quarters has also been disrupted.
Water
crisis is not new to the institute as students and teachers often
complain of water scarcity which has emerged as a perennial problem. All
this, when more than 40 PHED officials including an SDO and two
junior engineers are deputed in the institute to maintain vigil over
water supply to the hostel and residential quarters. Lack of alternative
arrangements compounds the problem for boarders. Even a hand pump is not
available close to the hostel.
Though
the students somehow manage the crisis during normal days, the problem
aggravates during exam time when they do not get the time to fetch water
from hand pumps located far away from the hostel. "We often face
difficulty due to water crisis during the examination", said a
final year mechanical engineering student.
Apart
from this, students are increasingly finding cleanliness a rarity in the
institute. The four sweepers employed by Notified Area Committee (NAC)
have not attended duty for the past about two weeks. This has resulted
in the spread of Parthenium across the campus, which has become a
breeding ground for reptiles including snakes, that often enter the
overcrowded hostel endangering life of the students. Incidentally, the
institute pays a fixed amount annually to the NAC in terms of rental.
BIT
Director, R.P.Sharma, attributed the crisis partly to the laxity of PHED
officials. At the same time he said that increase in the number of
students following the Science and Technology departments directive to
increase the number of seats, was also posing a problem.
Brushing
aside the allegation of perennial water problem in the institute, PHED
executive engineer Swetabh Kumar said temporay disruption in water
supply that arose due to a technical snag in the pipeline has been
rectified and water supply restored to the institute.
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