BEHRAMPORE, 6 FEB: Hundreds of community tube-wells that serve as a source of drinking water are lying defunct for years leading to a drinking water crisis in the drought-hit areas of Murshidabad where the alternative water points also run dry during summer months. A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed recently with Calcutta High Court in order to address the issue of drinking water crisis. Data furnished in the court by an NGO, Citizen Forum on Human Rights, has revealed that at least 1,500 tube-wells have not been functioning for years. And they were never restored in five blocks of Kandi, Bharatpur-I and II, Khargram and Barwan of Kandi sub-division. Flood and drought being the annual features of Kandi, crisis in drinking water becomes acute when flood waters contaminate drinking water sources and drought dehydrates usable water points like reservoirs, ponds or lakes, thus making people dependent solely on tube-wells. So repair, re-sinking or maintenance of tube-wells in these areas are of urgent need which the administration refuses to recognise, said Mr Afzal Hossain Khan, the petitioner of the PIL and an official of the NGO. The issue of drinking water crisis in Kandi sub-division was initially brought to the notice of both the state and Central governments by the Behrampore MP, Mr Adhir Chowdhury, who tried to bring the area under the Rajiv Gandhi Drinking Water Mission, Mr Khan said. According to a rough estimate by the petitioner, the number of defunct tube-wells in Kandi, Khargram, Bharatpur (I and II) and Barwan blocks stands at 250, 466, 564 and 234, respectively. If the non-functional tube-wells in the Kandi Municipality area are taken into account, in the Kandi sub-division alone the number is likely to reach a staggering 1,800 non-operative tube-wells, claimed the rights activist. Mr Debarshi Ray, BDO of Bharatpur-II block, said the work order was issued to the gram panchayats for carrying out repair work of the defunct tube-wells. But the Forum on Human Rights maintained that the tube-wells which have gone out of service cannot be restored because government funds for their maintenance were scanty. The NGO plans to reveal before the High Court the sorry state of affairs in the entire Murshidabad district where at least 19 blocks out of a total 26 suffer from arsenic contamination in tube-wells.