‘Tanker mafia’ in Gurugram damage water supply pipes second time in two months

According to the residents’ welfare association of the Pioneer Park group housing society in Sector 61, the water tanker mafia have damaged the water pipelines laid by the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) for a second time in as many months.

According to the residents’ welfare association of the Pioneer Park group housing society in Sector 61, the water tanker mafia have damaged the water pipelines laid by the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) for a second time in as many months.

About 750 families are living in Pioneer Park — society’s daily water need roughly is 6 to 6.5 lakh litres. (HT File Photo)

The RWA of the society, located along the Southern Peripheral Road, also known as Golf Course Extension Road, wrote to the GMDA on Wednesday to lodge a police complaint in this regard and initiate lawful action to check such offences in future. In its letter, the RWA stated that such acts (of damaging water pipeline repeatedly) were meant to harass residents and compel them to hire private tankers for water supply.

The RWA had written to GMDA to register a police complaint in February as well after unidentified miscreants, suspected to be members of the water mafia, had damaged the society’s water pipelines.

“We want GMDA to register an FIR against unknown persons and put strong surveillance around the society to nab the miscreants. The pipelines have been damaged at least six to seven times in past four months,” Pioneer Park RWA president Sudhir Krishnan said.

“We have paid external and internal development charges to the Haryana government for water (sewer and other amenities). We will not tolerate water crisis this summer on account of GMDA’s fault,” said Krishnan.

About 750 families are living in Pioneer Park — society’s daily water need roughly is 6 to 6.5 lakh litres.

The RWA said water supply by tankers is a lucrative business that leads to extracting lakhs of litres of groundwater through illegal borewells. Such water sells for 14 to 20 paisa per litre to private societies and the demand goes up several fold in summer.

“In summer, society’s monthly water bill goes ₹16- ₹17 lakh. The tanker mafias do not want to lose this lucrative business. We are 80% dependent on tanker water and this is unfortunate,” an executive of the Pioneer Park Facility Management said, adding that the GMDA water supply is available at 4 paisa a litre only.

Resident Sanjay Chandra said, “We pay ₹1/sfqt/month for water, which is a big amount. We want the GMDA to give us permanent relief from this harassment and provide us uninterrupted canal water supply.”

GMDA chief engineer Lalit Arora said, “We have taken up this issue seriously and matter is being discussed. A high level meeting is scheduled in this regard in the GMDA office on Saturday.” On February 12, ATS Kocoon, a condominium in Sector 109, had also lodged an FIR against two persons for destroying their water line.