Water-borne diseases would stage a comeback if potholes along the highway under Dera Bassi municipal limit are not filled up immediately. Otherwise these would turn into breeding places for mosquitoes.

Fresh jhuggis that came up last week on the forest land only reflect that the MC officials are not sincere in removing encroachments. Residents allege that MC officials were hand in glove with the encroachers.

The situation is not better inside the township. Growth of congress grass, choked severs and a poor drainage system has made life miserable. Residents say that their complaints are not attended to despite several visits to the MC officials, ``who have a casual approach towards their work.'' When contacted, the officials stock answer was a "resource crunch.''

Finding safe drinking water is difficult due to unhygienic conditions in the area around the tube wells, that depend on electricity for supply. There is no generator for emergency use in case of a major fault in the main supply line.

Refuting allegations of an "indifferent'' attitude, MC officials say that the situation has improved a lot, with improvements having been made in the civic amenities. People should inculcate civic sense amongst themselves, rather than criticising MC functioning, said a senior MC official.

MC president Jagjit Singh Dali said that efforts were being made to get in touch with Punjab Finance Minister Capt Kanwaljit Singh who had earlier agreed to allocate more funds to make it a model township. Passing the buck, MC officials say that it is the primary duty of the PSEB officials to ensure uninterrupted power supply to the township. "We are approaching the PSEB authorities to set up more transformers in the industrial belt too,'' they added. MC officials further said that additional funds have been allocated for augmentation of water supply in the township.