The Times of India              04.06.2013

18 booked for water theft

CHANDIGARH: In a first of sorts, police on Monday registered a criminal case against 18 persons for alleged water theft following a complaint of the engineering wing of the municipal corporation (MC).

The action comes after the month-long drive of the MC wing to check illegal connections and identify payment defaulters. The accused had failed to pay up their pending bills and taken connections illegally by breaking the main water supply pipeline of their particular area.

"We have sufficient evidence against the violators. An FIR has been registered against them for water theft. Each one of them will also have to pay Rs 25,000 to the authority to retain the connection. We are going to be very tough against all such violators," said R C Diwan, superintending engineer, MC. The officials had taken pictures of the violators before and after taking illegal connections by puncturing main supply pipelines. These will be handed over to the police for investigation.