In a move to conserve water, the KMC plans to book garage owners who are found to have “tapped” filtered water from roadside civic taps to wash vehicles. The supply line that these unscrupulous owners had drawn from the taps would also be snapped, said a civic water supply official on Friday.
The decision was taken after mayor Firhad Hakim recently addressed the matter of filtered water wastage at the KMC House, in reply to a CPM councillor pointing out how such mindless misuse might eventually lead to a crisis. Hakim asked the KMC water supply department to identify the garages “stealing” water from roadside taps to wash vehicles.
“A large number of garages across Kolkata take drinking water from roadside taps to wash vehicles. We are identifying these garages and their sources of water. Once the list is completed, we will take stringent action against them,” said a KMC water supply department official. The action, he said, might include filing of FIRs against the owners for water theft and snapping the KMC water supply lines illegally connected to premises.
A senior water supply official pointed out that the civic body already supplied unfiltered Hooghly water in large parts of the city, meant for non-drinking purposes, mostly, washing. “We supply 5 million gallons of unfiltered water from Mullickbazar. But far from using the non-potable Hooghly water, some garage owners steal filtered water, creating artificial crisis in neighbourhoods,” he said.
The civic top brass have roped in councillors to identify such garages. Trinamool councillor Mohun Gupta, representing Bidhan Sarani and Arabindo Sarani areas, have put up posters against misuse of filtered water. “I have assured the civic staff of help in identifying such garages,” Gupta said.
Jui Biswas, Trinamool Congress councillor from New Alipore, has also pledged to keep a tab on the misuse of filtered water in her area. “We will also run an awareness campaign among the women in the neighbourhood on how to rationalize the use of potable water,” Biswas said.
Source: Times of India
