Imphal, May 17: The uncharacteristic dry spell coupled with the inefficiency on the part of the PHED, Ukhrul has forced the people of the district headquarters to endure tremendous hardships for the last couple of weeks.

The late arrival of monsoon has dried up the water sources in Ukhrul town with the people compelled to fetch water from far-off places that too after negotiating long queues till around midnight.

While the water scarcity problem has greatly inconvenienced the public in general, it is the student community who have to face the brunt in particular as study hours have to be compromised in order to procure water.

Most students stay either in rented quarters or at hostels to pursue studies in the district headquarters as commuting from their remote and far flung homes to their schools on a daily basis is not practical.

The yearly problem could have been mitigated to some extent had the PHED authority repaired the pipe leakage at Langdang village which is located about eight kilometres from the main town.

The PHED officials drew flaks from the president of Ukhrul Students� Union, AS Ashang, who slammed the unethical conduct of the PHED and lamented that students rather than concentrating on their studies for the May last week half-yearly examinations are forced to procure water wasting their study hours.

The crisis on the other hand has benefited the heavy vehicle owners who use their vehicles to procure the water from their sources and sell it to the people.

Potable water per tin is being sold at Rs 8.While the PHED draws heavy flak the endeavour of 13 Assam Rifles� Post Commander Major Kiran is the most popular figure currently for providing mobile water supply to the Ukhrul denizens.

Under the Non-Lapsable Central Pool of Resources Rs 5 crores was sanctioned for the Ukhrul Water Supply Scheme out of which Rs 2.3 crore released assistance had been utilised in construction of a 7.2 lakh capacity reservoir which is nearing completion, disclosed the PHED officials when the Sangai Express inquired.

The EE was not available for comment.

The PHED officials also contended that all the ground work had been completed with the only impediment in completion of the water supply scheme being non-supply of pipes estimated to cost around Rs 2.2 crores.

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