Bijendra Ahlawat
Tribune News Service
Faridabad, March 18
The Municipal Corporation of Faridabad has launched a metering project to legalise unauthorised water connections. The step has been taken after a recent survey by the civic body showed that around 75 per cent of the water connections in the city were unauthorised.
"The survey on property tax has revealed that there are 5.6 lakh units (residential and commercial) in the city but only 1.39 lakh units have legal water connections," said a senior MC official.
A majority of illegal connections are located in slum clusters and densely populated colonies in the NIT, old Faridabad and Ballabgarh.
Yashpal Yadav, MC Commissioner, said that illegal water and sewerage connections were causing a loss of more than Rs 5 crore to the MC every year. The MC supplies 240 million litres per day (MLD) in the city having a population of 20 lakh against 300 MLD required. The total annual revenue generated from water and sewerage connections is around Rs 12 crore, sources say.
They say that the tanker and private water supply mafia enjoying political patronage has been exploiting water resources and piped water supply, resulting in short supply.
"A comprehensive audit of the entire water supply network will be conducted and, if required, FIRs will be registered against the offenders to curb the menace of illegal connections," Yadav said.
The campaign to regularise illegal connections was launched earlier as well, but it failed to check water theft or pilferage because of poor planning and execution, the sources say.
"Tenders for the metering project are expected to be invited within a couple of weeks," Yadav added.
from The Tribune https://ift.tt/3lwqgkM
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