Plumbers allege irregularities in water connections in East Zone

Irked at not being able to work due to the interference of an elected representative, members of the Coimbatore Corporation’s Licensed Plumbers’ Association have complained to the Chief Minister.

Oral instructions

In their petition, they have alleged that by way of oral instructions, K.R. Jayaram, Chairman, East Zone, Coimbatore Corporation, has asked East Zone officials not to entertain applications for water connections forwarded by plumbers.

And on applications they submitted and for which the Corporation had sanctioned water connections, Mr. Jayaram has, with the help of his men, bypassed them and directly approached the applicants.

Income affected

This, the plumbers say, has affected their income, caused loss to the Corporation, promoted illegal connections and forced residents to pay more than what was required.

The association members are licensed plumbers in that they help applicants complete formalities for water connections by doing the paper work, calculate centage, submit connection plan and also do plumbing work by linking the Corporation’s supply line to the applicants’ house.

They then inform the Corporation officials about the commencement and completion of work. And, if need be, also liaison with the police officials wherever the work area involves major roads.

In the execution of their work, the Corporation official concerned, usually a ward’s junior engineer or assistant engineer supervises and verifies their work.

This has been the practice for long, they have said and added that around 60 licensed plumbers have been in business since Coimbatore was a municipality. Now with the increase in area, the demand for water connections has been on the increase.

But this demand has come at a time when the Corporation has been grappling with the issue of illegal water connections, granted indiscriminately when the added areas were either municipalities or town panchayats.

Now if the East Zone Chairman Mr. Jayaram were to bypass licensed plumbers and grant water connections, it will only compound the problem as the Corporation will not have a record of the number of connections given.

Worse, the licensed plumbers have also said that they are not being allowed to enter a few wards in the East Zone to know if connections have been given for the applications they have at hand.

CM's intervention

They have sought the Chief Minister’s intervention to address the problem.

East Zone Chairman Mr. Jayaram did not answer calls. Officials in the East Zone, who wished to remain anonymous, however, acknowledged the problem. It was for the councillors or elected representatives to respond to such allegations, was all that they were willing to say. The Mayor, S.M. Velusamy, was also not available for comments.