23 September,2009 07:58 AM IST | | Urvashi Seth
Philanthropist Mahavirprasad G Saraf efforts to ensure clean drinking water for railway commuters has been reduced to a trickle, quite literally
You've seen the water huts at almost every suburban station, but ignored the name that sponsored them the Kirandevi Saraf Trust.
The man behind the drinking water-for-all drive, 75-year-old Mahavirprasad G Saraf, is shattered today.
After installing 98 drinking water huts at 46 railway stations in 2001, he's just found out that 70 are in a bad condition.
"For the past few months, I have been getting complaints from commuters about the huts' poor condition. I wanted to bring this to the notice of the railway authorities," said Saraf.
The Trust recently sent a complaint letter to the railways, as it's their responsibility to maintain them.
u00a0
The Trust even got a place in the Limca Book of Records for being the highest number of such huts constructed by anyone.
Used as dustbins
Sources say the Trust has invested crores of rupees to install the water huts, each having a water cooler with a capacity of 1,000 litres, a filter and three taps.
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"The authorities need to take some quick action, as the whole purpose of installing the water huts is gone," said Saraf.
At a few stations, taps are missing, someu00a0 huts are being used as a dustbin, while a few others had paan stains, revealed Saraf.
Commuters too are disappointed. "We can't even think of drinking water from the tap. We could fall ill. I've even seen commuters spit on the taps," said Reshma Masiheri, a resident of Mulund.
