The Indian Express                17.04.2013

Next on PMC agenda: Regularising illegal water lines

After illegal hoardings and constructions, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) administration now has another problem to tackle.

With the civic body all set for metering of water supply, they now have to deal with illegal water connections.

PMC is implementing the ambitious project of metering all its connections while ensuring equitable and continuous water supply to residents.

Accordingly, the civic administration has undertaken the pilot project at five different places in the city.

"The success of the project is dependent more on checking illegal water connections in the city. So, the civic administration is set to propose ways of tackling the issue by regularising illegal connections by recovering charges from citizens," said V G Kulkarni.

He said that there are several issues involved in regularising illegal water connection. "There is no data of illegal water connections, but they would be identified with the implementation meters. There will be accounting of water at various stages, and it would be possible only if metering of all connections is done. Therefore, the citizens having illegal connections would be asked to legalise the connection or face discontinuation of supply," Kulkarni said, adding that this would be applicable for illegal structures existing in the city.

On structures coming up with the permission of PMC, he said every developer would be charged as per commercial rates for getting water connection before procuring the structure's completion certificate. The charges for regularising the connection would also depend on the number of connections and size of pipe supplying water to the citizens, Kulkarni added.

The civic administration has also identified some areas where it would provide water within limited amount, he said. "The population density and geography of the area have been taken into consideration on deciding the amount of water that would be available in the selected areas."

According to another civic officer, "There is one more reason for the civic administration to take steps to tackle the issue of illegal water connection. The state government has directed the civic body to either regularise the illegal water connections or discontinue supply."

However, the civic activists point fingers at the inefficiency of the civic administration. "Around 40 per cent of population stay in slums with most of them having illegal water connection. To add to that, there are several illegal structures that illegally procure water purified by PMC. The situation has arisen due to the failure of the civic officials in performing their duties," said an activist, pointing out that the administration has been struggling to resolve the issue of illegal hoardings despite court directions and that of illegal constructions in spite of orders from the state government.