Mumbai: Barely three weeks after record results in the elections to the BMC, a senior BJP leader conceded on Monday that the poll promise of 24x7 water supply for the city might remain on paper.
Speaking at a BMC meeting on Monday, BJP leader in the BMC Manoj Kotak said ₹28 crore have already been spent and ₹60 crore are to be paid for consultations on mapping the city’s water lines, but water woes have not changed on ground. “The pilot project of introducing 24x7 water supply in T and H(W) wards has hardly moved in spite of so much money being spent. At this rate, I doubt if we would be able to fulfil our manifesto promise in the next five-year term,” Mr. Kotak said.
The issue came up when senior Sena corporator from Andheri (W) Rajul Patel raised a point of order in the meeting, and said he would lead a protest at the local K-W ward office if water supply continued to be irregular in her area. The issue touched a chord with corporators across party lines, who complained of similar water problems in their constituencies. Many corporators, including the Congress’s Virendra Chowdhary from Malad, complained about the presence of a water mafia that ran an illegal supply network. “In the slums in our area, there are no official water connections even now,” he said.
Alpa Jadhav, Congress corporator from Amboli, Andheri (W) said, “It’s unbelievable that even in a city like Mumbai, people have to get up at 4 a.m. to store water. Also,the water pressure is so low that it takes about half-an-hour to fill one bucket. The existing water pipeline network is 40 years old.” Samajwadi Party corporator Ruksana Siddiqui complained there was no water supply throughout Monday in her constituency, Govandi.
While Congress corporator from Malad Qumarjahan Siddiqui complained that irregular water supply affected girls’ education in the slum area since “the burden of filling water generally fell on the daughters in the house”, Shaera Khan, SP corporator from Govandi, said water supply was so bad in her area that people cycled to neighbouring Chembur to purchase two gallons of water for ₹100. Dilip Lande, the MNS corporator from Kurla, said the BMC would do well to supply about eight hours of water a day.
Mayor Vishwanath Mahadeshwar asked the civic body to look into the matter and submit a report. The corporators have also demanded the scrapping of a rule that requires a licensed municipal plumber’s nod to get a water connection, and pressed for a simpler procedure involving a municipal engineer.
