The Hindu                 30.05.2013

Councillors express concern over illegal water tapping

Officials told to conduct more checks across town.

Councillors of Erode Corporation have expressed serious
concern over the rampant tapping of water illegally from its pipelines
in several parts of the town.

All India Anna Dravida
Munnetra Kazhagam Councillor S. Thangavel, who raised the issue at the
council meeting held here on Wednesday, said many persons were using
motors to tap water directly from the Corporation pipelines. People, who
depended on the public taps to collect water, were not getting adequate
quantity because of the illegal tapping.

Many persons were filling up their tanks by directly tapping the water from the civic body’s pipelines, he alleged.

Ward
31 Councillor N. Saraswathi and Ward 32 Councillor V.P. Ilango also
echoed similar complaints and urged the civic body to initiate stern
action against those who were illegally tapping water.

Admitting
that the practice was prevalent in a few areas in the town, Mayor
Mallika Paramasivam said that the civic body had been conducting drives
at frequent intervals to check the illegal tapping of water.

She instructed the officials to conduct more checks across the town to curb the practice.

Councillors
also expressed serious concern over the high expenditure towards
maintaining of borewells in the town and appealed to the civic body to
purchase adequate equipment to bring down the cost.

Equipment

Many
Councillors, including that of the ruling AIADMK, suggested that the
civic body should have its own equipment like chain pulley block for
maintaining borewells instead of depending on the private operators.

There
would be a constant requirement for the equipment in the future as the
civic body had planned to sink more than 100 borewells in different
parts of the town. As many parts were experiencing severe water
shortage, the civic officials had already commenced the works for
sinking borewells at 25 places. Works would start in another 34 places
shortly.

The civic body received about Rs. 1.70 crore
from the State government for sinking borewells. It had planned to meet
the additional expenditure from its General Fund.

The
Mayor admitted that the civic administration would have a constant
requirement for chain pulley block and other equipment to maintain
borewells. “We will positively consider this suggestion and take steps
to purchase equipment for maintaining borewells,” she added.

Deputy
Mayor K.C. Palanisamy, Corporation Commissioner M. Vijayalakshmi,
Executive Engineer Arumugam and senior officials were present in the
meeting.