Cuttack: The Orissa high court has directed the state govt to put an alternative mechanism in place for water supply within reasonable time in Keonjhar district’s Raipur village where pipelines were laid in 2020 but villagers are still dependent on tube wells.The court gave the order on Tuesday while disposing of a PIL, filed by local resident Ashutosh Mohanta who told HC that pipelines were laid to ensure water supply in every household, but not a single drop has flowed through them so far. As a result, villagers have been forced to fetch water from govt tube wells located far from their homes.Hearing the matter, a division bench of Chief Justice Harish Tandon and Justice M S Raman noted that while the govt had taken the initiative of laying pipelines in Raipur village as early as 2020, the absence of water supply through them remained unexplained and unacceptable. Such an obligation, it said, “cannot be undermined and not to be whittled down by any means.”Additional govt advocate Debashis Tripathy submitted that the delay was due to litigations that stalled the construction of a water tank needed to ensure uninterrupted supply to areas under Udayapur and Khajirapat panchayats, under which Raipur village falls. He told the court that the state had now explored an alternative solution by connecting Raipur village to the mega pipe water project, though the process would take time.Recording the submission, the bench observed that since the govt had taken a “conscious decision” to put an alternative mechanism in place, the grievance raised in the PIL stood redressed. The court also took note of the fact that nine govt tube wells had been installed in Raipur village as an interim arrangement.The state has sought six months’ time to complete the alternative water supply project. “We, therefore, expect that the government will complete the work within the aforementioned timeline,” the bench said while disposing of the petition.The HC underlined the constitutional obligation of the state to provide safe drinking water. The bench observed, “It admits no quarrel that the water is a source of life without which the sustenance of human life cannot be ensured.”Stressing that access to drinking water is integral to the right to life, the court said, “It is engulfed into a fundamental right envisaged under Article 21 of the Constitution. The right to life imbibes within itself the right to have safe drinking water for survival of the human race.”
