People power?

We had not been getting Cauvery water at all for the past year+, BWSSB was making some excuse or another. We used to get their tankers, very rarely, after much calling and pleading and supply in the line was very very rare. Finally all the residents of this colony - this is a very old layout, 20+ years old, decided to form a residents association and take things into hand together rather than approaching them individually. For a long time BWSSB officials kept saying pipe problem, water problem etc. There were no rain last year so we kept quiet thinking it was a drought year but this year with the excess monsoon, there was still no water and that started to rankle.

So off they went as a group (Subhash represented our home), 17 people one fine Saturday to inquire about it. And were promised resolution in a week and these folks promised to go to higher ups in two weeks if water was not released. And lo! the third week water has started coming (people constantly kept following up with the BWSSB engineer). Initially on Monday, it was slow and only for 4 hours, but yesterday it came back to its normal supply.

I am hoping it will last.

Is this an example of people power? United we stand? Or a sad example of how we need to fight for even basic amenities in the world's most populous democracy? :) I prefer to look at it the positive way ;)

Amen to people power!