Bhayandar : At a time when the twin city of Mira-Bhayandar is reeling under an acute water crisis, the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) stumbled upon a rather ingenious way adopted by a developer to mint money by illegally selling municipal water through private tankers.
Acting on a tip-off regarding a flourishing tanker-filling point supplying water from a mysterious source, the MBMC carried out a surprise check at Kasturi Vandana, an under-construction commercial building in Bhayandar (east).
The inspection officials rubbed their eyes in disbelief when they spotted an underground rainwater harvesting tank in the building premises oozing with water.
The team immediately swung into action and turned off the supply valves of all the main supply lines in the range of the tank and started de-watering operations to ascertain the source of water.
“It was established beyond doubt that the source of the water accumulating in the tank was indeed the main supply lines. However, investigations are on to check if the line was deliberately tapped or whether it was a natural leakage, after which appropriate action, including an FIR, will be lodged against those found involved,” said a junior MBMC engineer, Srikrishna Mohite.
The illegal tanker point had been sourcing water to around 30 tankers every day, charging anywhere between Rs1,000 to 2,000, for the past several months, revealed sources.
“Even if there had been a leakage, it is the duty of the person concerned to check the source of the water and inform the MBMC. Exploiting rainwater harvesting tanks to sell off water is itself an offence,” said social activist Rohit Suvarna, who has demanded immediate action against those involved.
Technical glitch in main MBMC pipeline
The water supply department in the Mira-Bhayandar area faced a major hurdle when the main supply lines encountered a unique technical glitch on Tuesday. Owing to the failure of a cross connection near Mankoli, the water supply meant for the MBMC automatically started diverting itself into the pipelines of the Thane Municipal Corporation.
Suresh Golani
