As taps reportedly ran dry in the sweltering summer heat, residents of Shadi Lal Colony in Jai Shakti Nagar took to the streets on Saturday, blocking Tibba Road for nearly five hours to protest the alleged failure of authorities to provide regular drinking water supply.The agitated residents staged the blockade from 9 am to 2 pm, disrupting traffic movement and raising slogans against the civic administration over the alleged lack of response to repeated complaints.“We are not getting regular drinking water for the last two weeks. We have knocked on all doors, but no one is helping us in this extreme heat. We were left with no alternative but to stage a protest to express our pain,” said local resident Rohit Arora.Responding to the protest, mayor Inderjit Kaur said the issue stemmed from inadequate infrastructure in what she described as an illegal private colony. “The developer, Shadi Lal, fled without depositing a single penny with the municipal corporation to regularise the colony. There is no pipeline network to support water supply. Despite this, we are still obliged to serve residents and have been ensuring supply through whatever infrastructure is available,” she said.The mayor, however, rejected allegations that the locality had remained without water for two weeks.“The problem has persisted only for the last couple of days, primarily due to power disruptions. We are trying to resolve the issue as soon as possible,” she added. The protest also drew political attention, with former MLA and Congress district president Sanjay Talwar reaching the site and extending support to the demonstrators.Talwar questioned the civic body’s claim that the colony was unauthorised, arguing that several development works had previously been carried out there with government approval. “When I was the MLA of the constituency, streets in the colony were tiled and several other development works were undertaken. How can the colony suddenly become illegal when residents are demanding water?” he said. He further asserted that access to water, electricity and sewerage constituted essential civic services.“The Supreme Court has made it clear that the government cannot deprive people of essential services. Now, they are terming the colony illegal merely to conceal administrative failure,” Talwar said.The Congress leader also criticised the local MLA’s office, claiming that despite being located barely minutes away from the protest site, no representative visited the agitating residents during the hours-long demonstration.