Shimla water woes: Protests continue, tanker runs over woman
Shimla, June 2: Protests continued to rock the Himachal Pradesh capital on Saturday, as the densely populated Kusumpti area reeled under acute portable water shortage for the straight 14th day.
A water tanker driver deployed by the civic body got an epilepsy attack and run over a 65-year-old woman on the busy Mall Road, who was rushed to the Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital here where she was declared dead.
Assistant Superintendent of Police Praveer Thakur confirmed that the tanker driver suffered epilepsy attack due to which the woman, Uma Keprate, got hit by the tanker.
Hundreds of residents blocked the road leading to the state secretariat in Kusumpti, raising slogans against the government and the Shimla Municipal Corporation, both ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
"Despite instructions by the High Court on supplying water in the city on a rotational basis, there is no water supply in this locality.
"The piped water has not been supplied for the past eight days. Three days ago I got just three buckets of water for a family of five from a government tanker," housewife Sanjana Jindal told IANS.
Residents were out on the streets protesting even late on Friday.
"We are depending on bottled water for cooking and drinking. There is no water to clean utensils and wash clothes. I have not taken bath for almost a week now.
"Our toilets are stinking literally as we are refraining from flushing them. We just managed to collect two buckets of water from rooftop when it rained in Shimla on Friday evening," college-goer Nandita Chauhan said.
"We are prepared to live with very little water but we need that little water to sustain our daily chores and personal hygiene," she said, adding: "I think the government should promote dry toilets in Shimla in order to save millions of litres of water."
The problem of water shortage persisted in Pantha Ghatti, Chhota Shimla, Vikasnagar, Kangnadhar, New Shimla and Khalini localities.
A government statement said the civic body received 24.50 million litre per day water on Friday and it was distributed as per the timetable. It said 1.70 lakh litre water was supplied to different localities through tankers.
Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Saturday rushed to New Delhi to brief the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) on steps taken to restore water normalcy in Shimla.
"The PMO sought information and that is a routine one about the prevailing water crisis in Shimla. We have provided the information earlier also. Today, I have given the status report personally," Thakur told reporters in New Delhi.
Blaming the previous Congress government in the state, he said the Congress deliberately ignored the gravity of the water problem for five years.
"For the past 15 days, I am monitoring the water situation of Shimla on a daily basis and also through video conferencing if I am out of Shimla. We have improved the water supply but it still needs to be strengthened," he said, admitting that the water shortage this summer was worst in 10 years.
Officials blamed water shortage on the rising mercury and the drying up of natural water channels. Shimla has a population of nearly 200,000 that requires 42 MLD water.
Facing flak from the high court, which is monitoring the water situation on a day-to-day basis, the Municipal Corporation has disconnected the water connections of over 40 hotels for their failure to clear the pending arrears.
Issuing a slew of directives on Friday, it said all 62 keymen, who are responsible for supplying water in localities, should be kept under surveillance to ensure equitable distribution.
The court has listed the case for next hearing on June 11. It has also made it categorically clear that no individual request even to the VIPs, including the judges, would be entertained.
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Supreme Court of India YouTube channel hacked, promoting cryptocurrency scams
New Delhi: The YouTube channel of the Supreme Court of India appears to have been hacked, with videos promoting XRP, a cryptocurrency developed by US-based Ripple Labs, currently being displayed. The channel, which streams live hearings of Constitution Bench cases and matters of public interest, recently broadcasted the proceedings of the suo motu case concerning the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital rape and murder.
Hackers have reportedly made earlier videos private, and a live stream titled "Brad Garlinghouse: Ripple Responds To The SEC's $2 Billion Fine! XRP PRICE PREDICTION" is now visible on the channel. Scams involving the hacking of popular video channels are not uncommon, and Ripple had previously sued YouTube for failing to prevent scammers from impersonating its CEO, Brad Garlinghouse.
According to a report by The Verge, scammers have been creating fake accounts for Ripple and Garlinghouse, often by hacking successful YouTube channels. These hacked channels, with their large subscriber bases, are then used to promote fraudulent XRP schemes, misleading viewers into making payments in exchange for promises of rewards.
Supreme Court officials have confirmed that the channel's hacking is under investigation.
