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.
