Agra, April 14: An initiative run by volunteers to produce free and cold drinking water to all completes thirty years of service in the Taj town.

Each summer, a group of thirst quenchers who have banded themselves along within the Sri Nath JI Nishulk Jal Sewa, armed with buckets and trolleys found out water kiosks at the most busy crossings here.

“It is neither a registered NGO nor a proper structured institution with a constitution. The members share a passion to confirm no one remains thirsty,” Bankey Lal Maheshwari, who coordinates the group activities, told Sunday.

From its modest starting in the early Eighties, the Jal Sewa network today runs seventy odd water points in the town, besides a dozen night shelters in winter.

For a thirsty person in the hot summer of Agra, a mug of cold scented water is like nectar, says doctor M.C. Gupta.

Maheshwari recollects the group’s service expanded  when a tragic train accident in 1987.

“It was a hot June afternoon and there was no potable offered at the platform. some of us got along and acquired buckets and mugs, organized for ice and provided water to the victims,” he recollects.

Maheshwari says funds for the initiative return from those that present voluntarily.

Rajan Kishore, a member, adds: “The hygienical standards are high and the service employs quite 75 old men and women.”