Local residents took to social media urging tourists to not visit Shimla and the hill-station was reeling under severe water crisis. Social media has been flooded with messages and hashtags such as #StopVisitingShimla.
Hotel owners also requested customers to cancel bookings. The water crisis has been a fallout of little snowfall and insufficient rains this year. Government authorities at Shimla also postponed International Shimla Summer festival that was slated to be held between June 1 and 5.
Shimla Municipal Corporation started supplying water since Thursday morning under heavy police protection with over 70 police personnel deployed to tackle the shortage of water.
Earlier, on Wednesday, the Himachal Pradesh High Court, in a suo motu cognisance ordered the civic body not to supply water through tankers or to favour ministers, bureaucrats or judges during the crisis. The high court also directed the Himachal Pradesh government and Shimla civic body authorities to stop water distribution for building construction or for car washing.
With a storage of 21.75 million litre water per day (MLD), the Shimla administration is trying to cope with the daily water requirements of 32-35 MLD. It has deployed 27 tankers to supply 2.25 lakh litre across 63 points in the city.
