Residents of Huran Kotla panchayat in Dharampur block today registered a stiff opposition to a water-boring proposal of a builder, fearing it would lead to drying up of natural sources of water and the sanitation issue in the area. Irrigation and Public Health (IPH) Department Executive Engineer Hemant Tanwar presided over a public hearing where a large number of people had turned up to air their grievances. Janta Land Promoters Ltd is constructing cottages in the area and has raised a demand of 40,000 litres per day. The builder had applied to the HP Ground Water Authority for grant of permission for boring to draw groundwater for the cottages. The IPH Department today held a public hearing to invite objections in this regard. Locals, including panchayat pradhan Laxmi Devi, vociferously raised objection against the proposal. They said the proposal if implemented would dry up their natural sources of water, including the nullahs, for irrigation. The locals alleged that a large number of labourers engaged in the housing project were defecating in the open in the precincts of the construction site and the nullahs would be choked by the human waste once the cottages became habitable. IPH officials visited the plant site and found the mess around the site. With the panchayat against this proposal, it has been alleged that the housing firm is resorting to pressure tactics to obtain the no-objection certificate. The authority is yet to take a decision on the water-boring project.