Water supply back to normal in Shimla, tourist footfall looks up

Vartha Bharati | 15-06-2018 | 17:49:00 IST

Shimla, June 15: The water supply in the Himachal Pradesh capital was back to normal on Friday after over a month of crisis that saw widespread protests, marches to Chief Minister's residence at midnight and even interventions by the high court.

The Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) a day earlier announced it would supply water in the city every alternate day, a routine schedule followed in the city for many years.

"The daily water availability has improved to 35 to 40 million litres per day (MLD). So, the distribution has also increased," an official told here.

Planned by the British for a maximum population of 16,000, Shimla, now with a population of nearly 200,000, requires 42 MLD water.

This summer, Shimla for the first time in its history saw an unprecedented water crisis owing to drying up of water channels in its catchment.

Rampant water shortage forced residents to lock their water tanks and the government to provide security to the employees supplying water.

Old-timers blame water crisis over the years to losing green cover and natural water streams and springs due to unplanned urbanisation while water experts say deficient snow during the past winter triggered drought-like condition this season.

Locals rue that of late, Shimla has become synonymous with water scarcity -- both in summer and winter.

The civic authorities blame leakages in the distribution network, a significant portion of which goes back to the British days, and diminishing water resources that have been over-exploited to meet the increasing demand from the tourism industry.

Slamming the civic authorities and the state government over the water crisis, the High Court, which is still monitoring the situation, directed the municipal corporation that there should be no supply of water to any individual through a tanker, even to the VIPs, including the judges.

Listing the case for next hearing on June 18, the court wanted to know the steps initiated by the government and the municipal corporation for modernising the system of collection, pumping, uplifting and distribution of water.

As Shimla makes news for narrowly averting a Cape Town-like situation, water-starved residents turned to social media campaigns, asking the tourists to stay away from the northern India's famed hill resort during the peak holiday season.

According to the hospitality industry, at the height of tourism season, over 50 per cent of the bookings were cancelled this month.

However, a state Tourism Department spokesperson said the inflow of tourists was picking up gradually and about 20 per cent increase in hotel bookings was registered over the past one week of June.

"Now we are getting sufficient water supply every day. Even the footfall of the tourists has once again increased," D.P. Bhatia, Liaison Officer with the Shimla-based Oberoi Group of hotels, told here.

The water shortage had left the tourism industry representatives worried as Shimla gets 20,000-30,000 tourists on an average every weekend during the peak summer season -- during May-June.

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Assam govt moves SC against anticipatory bail to Congress leader Pawan Khera

13-04-2026 ¦ 13-04-2026 IST

Photo: PTI

New Delhi (PTI): The Assam government has moved the Supreme Court against the Telangana High Court order granting one-week transit anticipatory bail to Congress leader Pawan Khera in a case registered against him for levelling allegations against Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma's wife.

The petition was filed on Sunday through advocate Shuvodeep Roy and is likely to be taken up for hearing this week.

On April 10, the high court granted one-week transit anticipatory bail to Khera.

The high court gave him a week's time to file an application before the court concerned and granted him relief with certain conditions.

"Without expressing any opinion on the merits of the case, this court is of the view that the petitioner has made out a case for grant of limited transit anticipatory bail, as his apprehension of arrest appears to be reasonable and supported by material on record," the high court had said in its order.

The conditions were that the petitioner shall be released on bail in the event of arrest on his executing a personal bond for Rs one lakh with two sureties for the like sum each, cooperate with the investigation and make himself available for interrogation as and when required by the Investigating Officer and that he shall not leave the country without prior permission of the competent Court.

The conditions further include that the petitioner shall, within the stipulated period, approach the competent jurisdictional court in Assam and seek appropriate relief and he, being a public figure, shall exercise restraint in making any further public statements in relation to the subject matter of the present case, which may prejudice the investigation, the order said.

The Congress leader on April 5 had alleged that the Assam CM's wife, Riniki Bhuyan Sarma, has multiple passports and foreign property, which were not declared in the chief minister's election affidavit for the April 9 Assembly polls in that state.

The case against Khera was registered at the Guwahati Crime Branch Police Station under several sections of the BNS, including 175 (false statement in connection with an election), 35 (Right of private defence of the body and of property) and 318 (cheating).

Khera, who approached the high court on April 7, showed his residential address in Hyderabad. He had requested the high court to release him on bail in the event of his arrest.