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MALAPPURAM: Twenty-two families of a dalit colony near Valanchery in Malappuram district were allegedly denied drinking water after three among them attended a pro-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) programme organized by BJP.

The residents of Cherukunnu SC colony alleged that a Muslim family in the neighbourhood, which use to provide drinking water to them, stopped the supply from January 17, citing the participation of three among them in a ‘Janajagratha Sadass’ supporting CAA as the reason. The event was held at Valanchery town a week ago.

After senior BJP leaders raised the issue through their Twitter handles on Thursday, revenue authorities decided to convene an all-party meeting and take immediate steps to restore the water supply.

Most of the residents of the colony are BJP supporters. Akhila Cherukunnu Parambil, a resident, said the water supply scheme of grama panchayat was not functioning for more than a year and they were forced to walk around 1km to collect drinking water.

“Recently, the Muslim family arranged a facility to pump water from a water source to their home. They offered three buckets of water to each of the family in the colony daily. On Friday, a woman member of the family told us that photos of three men of the colony attending the pro-CAA programme was being circulating on a social media group in the locality and the family cannot continue to provide water as they were under pressure from a section of people to stop the supply,” said Akhila.

C P Velayudhan, a former CPM branch committee member, said the family stopped providing water suddenly and people in the colony, irrespective of party affiliations, were hit. Velayudhan said that he would bring the issue to the notice the CPM leaders. For the last three days, Sevabharathi unit in Painkannur has been supplying water to the colony.

However, Sainudheen Kalappadathil, a member of the Muslim family, said: “We stopped supplying water due to technical issues. My wife never told them anything about CAA. These allegations are fabricated.”

Meanwhile, Tirur tahsildar T Murali, who visited the colony on Thursday, said that revenue authorities will file a detailed report on the incident to district collector Jafar Malik on Friday. “Panchayat authorities will take immediate steps to provide water to the colony,” he said.

“We are yet to verify the allegations of the colony residents,” added Murali.

