Shimla, Jan 8 (PTI) Senior CPI(M) leader and former Shimla Municipal Corporation mayor Tikender Singh Panwar on Monday alleged that the Shimla Jal Prabandhak Nigam Limited (SJPNL) has failed to manage the city's water supply.
He also demanded that the Himachal Pradesh capital's water supply either be handed over to the Jal Shakti department or reverted back to the corporation.
Panwar made the remarks in a letter to the country head of World Bank, India, Auguste Tano Kouame. The World Bank-funded water and sewage project being executed by SJPNL by lifting water from the Satluj river and the performance-based contract for rejuvenation of the water and sewage network has been a "gross failure", he alleged in the letter.
The former mayor also said that he had written to the World Bank earlier in April 2023 also.
"In the World Bank report on Urban Infrastructure released in December 2022, you have rightly argued for handing over such utilities to the city governments with a fair amount of autonomy," he said in his letter to Kouame.
Panwar said that either the Shimla water utility with its entire assets be reverted back to the Shimla Municipal Corporation, which has a strong history and capacity of handling water and sewage facilities, or be handed over to the Jal Shakti department.
He cautioned that "not taking an objective decision at this conjecture, this utility would be heading for ruins, which would further generate anger and ire of the people".