Chandigarh: Three car wash centres found extracting groundwater illegally

During inspection, three service stations on Daria-Mauli Jagran road, Mahadev Service Station, Hare Krishna Service Station and Manu Service Auto Centre, were found extracting groundwater, Chandigarh MC complained to police

The municipal corporation (MC) on Friday found three private car wash centres illegally extracting groundwater and for commercial use in Manimajra.

After disconnecting the water connections, MC officials registered a complaint with Chandigarh Police. (HT File Photo)

After disconnecting the water connections, MC officials registered a complaint with the police. “During inspection, three service stations on Daria-Mauli Jagran road, Mahadev Service Station, Hare Krishna Service Station and Manu Service Auto Centre, were found extracting groundwater. The owners had not sought permissions from the MC. Legal action will be taken against the owners and their water connections have been suspended.”

Municipal commissioner Anindita Mitra said, “For the past three months, teams have been checking illegal groundwater extraction. Action is being taken against the civic body employees who were aware about such incidents. The employees will be chargesheeted and the crackdown would continue. We are filing police complaints against private firms found illegally extraction of groundwater.”

On Thursday, MC found that a private contractor was illegally extracting groundwater in Kajheri and selling it to people. “Gurmeet Singh of Tiwana Water Tanker has made an illegal borewell and constructed a big underground tank. He is selling the extracted water at ₹600 per tanker in the city,” MC had said in a police complaint.

Mitra had also suspended two civic body employees, junior engineer (JE) Praveen Atri and meter reader Rajinder Singh.

Mitra said, “Chandigarh MC is taking steps to stop groundwater depletion. We are shifting from surface water extraction to canal water supply and at present, 80% of city’s water is supplied through canals. Also, we have started procedure to close 19 tubewells in Chandigarh, out of the total 270.”

Chandigarh receives water from two sources, surface water from the Bhakra main canal and groundwater tapped through the tubewells. From the canal, Chandigarh gets 76 million gallons water every day and it extracts 20 million gallons water from tubewells.

The present estimated population of Chandigarh is about 12.90 lakh and water to tune of 245 litre per capita per day is being supplied.