Ludhiana: Illegal sewer, water connection holders to face FIR

The municipal corporation (MC) is going to start a drive to disconnect the illegal connections of water supply and sewerage from mid of June. On the directions of the local bodies department, the MC will also lodge an FIR against the violators who have failed to get their connections regularised.

The municipal corporation (MC) is going to start a drive to disconnect the illegal connections of water supply and sewerage from mid of June. On the directions of the local bodies department, the MC will also lodge an FIR against the violators who have failed to get their connections regularised.

The deadline to get the unauthorised connections regularised at the reduced rates was May 31. The government had offered this scheme that was aimed to provide a golden chance to get unauthorised connections regularised.

The MC officials say in case the government gives more time to the violators, it will be a big relief for them otherwise they will have to face disconnection of water supply and sewerage connections.

An MC official said that the department was conducting a survey and the process to disconnect the illegal connections would start soon.

The MC had collected Rs 1.82 crore recently by regularising the connections till May 31.

According to MC, more than 6,500 connections of water supply and sewerage were regularised in different zones during this period. As many as 1,510 connections were regularised in zone A, 4,131 connections were regularised in zone B while 1,050 connections were regularised in zone D. The information about the regularised connections in zone C was not available but `70 lakh, more than other zones, was collected in this zone.

MC's additional commissioner Ghanshyam Thori said that the department would start the drive to disconnect illegal connections in the second half of June. He said that the secretary of local bodies department has also recommended to lodge FIR against the violators who have not got their connections regularised.

Sources said that there are still thousands of unauthorised connections of water supply and sewerage in the city, the owners of which can face action. It is worth mentioning here that the MC faces losses worth lakhs of rupees every year as the violators are enjoying free facility from unauthorised connections.

Earlier in May, the connections of corporation house meant for MC commissioner were regularised following which the commissioner also wrote to the deputy commissioner to give instructions to the officials residing in the other government houses where unauthorised connections were in use.