The Hindu             31.07.2013

Corporation to launch drive against illegal water connections

The Coimbatore Corporation will soon launch a drive to
identify illegal water connections and initiate action against those who
have such connections. According to Commissioner G. Latha and Deputy
Commissioner S. Sivarasu the Corporation will launch the programme in
the next few days and its focus will be on added areas.

The
decision to focus on added areas follows a study the Corporation
conducted a few days ago in Ward 32 – Vilankurichi. During their
door-to-door checking, the Corporation officials found around 500
illegal drinking water connections in that the house owners had not paid
the security deposit. They also did not pay the monthly water charges.

The
result of the exercise has led the Corporation to believe that if it
were to conduct similar exercise in the added areas, it would be able to
stumble upon many more connections.

Mr. Sivarasu says that the Corporation estimates that there are around 3,000 unauthorised connections.

To
identify the illegal connections, the Corporation will soon depute
teams of five engineers each to conduct a thorough survey. Assuming that
an engineer checks 50 connections a day, a team will check 250
connections a day and team will go on until it completes a ward.

After
identifying the illegal connections, the Corporation will collect the
necessary details and present the same to the senior officials, who will
serve notices on house owners to provide them an opportunity to
legalise their connections.

If the owners accept the
offer, the Corporation will continue to supply water. If not, it will
sever the connection and also initiate action, Ms. Latha says.

The
two officers say that the Corporation faces problems of illegal water
connections because there was unscrupulous issue of connections in large
numbers in added areas when they were municipalities, town panchayats
or village panchayats prior to the merger with the Corporation. After
merger, the Corporation had a tough time collecting details related to
not only water connection but also other details like property tax
assessments, vacant sites, etc.

Ms. Latha says that the regularisation will bring increase in one-time payment towards regularisation and also water charges.

There are around 2.25 lakh water connections in the Corporation.