The corporation also decided to hike the excise duty on per bottle of liquor sold in its limits by Rs 9. The MC has now proposed to charge Rs 10 excise duty per bottle.

It has also decided to raise charges for the street lights, which is passed on to the consumer through their domestic electricity bill. Against the rate of 2 paise per unit charged earlier, the MC will now charge 10 paise per unit.

The proposals will be sent to the government for approval. If the state Cabinet approves the new decisions, the new rates will be applicable from the next financial year 2010-2011.

With the Municipal Corporation beginning construction of a reservoir for storing tertiary-treated water at Sector 48, the southern sectors of the city would soon be able to get regular water supply for irrigation of green belts.

Officials said pipelines would be laid and apart from providing irrigation facilities at Sector 48, water would be supplied to adjoining areas, including Sectors 47, 49, 32, 31 and Industrial Area.

The first-of-its-kind reservoir for tertiary treated water, being constructed by the civic body under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) at a cost of around Rs 96 lakh, will help save drinking water for irrigation. Once constructed, the capacity of the reservoir will be 5,905 cubic metre. “The project will prove beneficial for the southern sectors. There would be a regular supply of water for the green belts. As the need for drinking water is going to increase in the coming years, this project would help save water,” said area councillor Jatinder Bhatia.

The city receives 87 million gallons per day (MGD) of water, of which 67 MGD is received from Kajauli and the remaining through tubewells. The peak summer demand, however, is around 113 MGD.

The civic body has set up a large number of greenbelts and parks. A regular supply of water is needed for their maintenance. Tertiary-treated water is supplied through the Diggian Sewage Treatment Plant. The plant is being upgraded from 15 MGD to 30 MGD.

There are 202 tubewells in different sectors of the city, of which around 160 are functional. Ten per cent of the tubewells become defunct every year and need replacement. The MC aims to reduce its dependence on tubewells in the coming years.

Motivate offenders to remove encroachments: Mayor

In a meeting with the Enforcement staff held on Wednesday, Mayor Anu Chatrath has asked them to motivate encroachers to remove encroachments on their own. The Mayor further asked them not to adopt a pick-and-choose policy when it comes to removal of encroachments. “Encroachment is a perennial problem of the city especially in Sector 22, 17, 15 and 19. The corridors in markets are overflowing with goods with little space left for shoppers to walk. Sector 17, which has been termed as zero-tolerance zone for encroachments, is still dotted with encroachments.”