As the city enters the festive season, with several Hindu holidays lined up, East Shillong appears to be facing a water crisis, with the department responsible out of reach of the public.
“I have received reports from all parts of our constituency that the water crisis is very acute,” local MLA Ampareen Lyngdoh said. “We don’t know what is going on.”
The timing could not be worse, according to the legislator, as Puja pandals require water both for drinking and for cleaning the premises.
“All the pandals and the citizens are suffering. Nobody has any water in the constituency and if you don’t believe me, just check the number of water tankers in front of people’s houses,” she said.
The Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department, however, appears to be out of reach, even for the MLA.
“I do not understand why all their phones are switched off. This is absolutely unbecoming as the city of Shillong is breaking into a joyous moment of Durga Puja and this is what we give the people,” Lyngdoh said. “I am requesting the government to attend to this crisis and sort it out before people feel very disappointed. We have had enough rain but something is not going right.”
