Nice name, but where is Cauvery?

Water woes usually haunt the City in summer but at Cauvery Nagar, named after one of the biggest and deified rivers of South India that quenches thirst of half of the City, water shortage is a round-the-year reality. There are water pipelines, taps and water meters everywhere, but no water.

Amazingly the residents here get water bills from the BWSSB every month and people are left with no option but to pay in the hope that one day water could flow in their taps. “Three years ago, water flowed in our tap but now it is just an adornment similar to our water meter,” she says.

The three years of IAS Raj in the City left this area high and dry. Now that people have elected Shailaja Srinivas Murthy as their corporator, they have started making a bee-line in front of her residence to sort out their woes. And Shailaja’s job has begun even before she could be sworn in. She is either getting the public borewells repaired or is paying for supplying water through tankers. The crisis is so acute in Muneshwaranagar that people are buying water at Rs seven per pot.

The drains too overflow here. “Come to our area during rainy season to see flooding and water gushing into our houses,” said Mohammed Altaf, a resident of the area. Shylaja wishes to build a community hall and a government college in the vicinity. Besides, she has plans to enhance facilities at the nearest maternity hospital. But her priority right now is water.

Profile

Shailaja Srinivas Murthy
(JD-S Corporator)
Education:     SSLC.
Family: Husband, two  daughters and a son.
Assets:  Rs 2.15 lakh.
Property: Seven sites in Nagawara.

What are the main problems in your ward?
Acute water crisis, clogged drains, lack of medical facilities and absence of good
educational institutes.

What are your plans to
address the problems?
My main priority is to
increase facilities in the
Maternity Hospital and to set right the supply of drinking water in the ward.