Illegal water connections proliferate in Pallavaram

By S. Shanker

CHENNAI, MARCH 25. There is a spurt in the number of illegal water connections at Pallavaram after the Municipal Administration Department issued orders for regularising the existing number a few weeks ago. Municipal officials are busy pulling out pvc pipes and taps that have sprung afresh. As many as 500 such lines have been connected to the mains and it is common knowledge that the clandestine work had not been done without the `patronage' of a group of elected body members.

The Government Order for regularising the illegal connections was passed recently by the Municipal Administration Department, taking into consideration the council's recommendations and the difficultly it would pose to remove them.

The Pallavaram municipal chairman, Mr. K. Adaikalam, says right from the day the regularisation scheme was announced, he has been on the roads `detecting and removing pipes'. However, there appears no end to the illegal activity.

The chairman has gone on record and cautioned elected members, during one of the council meetings, that he could not come to the rescue of councillors found facilitating the illegal activity. The warning appears to have had little effect. A list compiled by the local body recently places the number of illegal connections at 2,500. Of these, one councillor alone has been credited with `commissioning' 387 such lines. Sources say a separate one-km distribution line has been laid near Hasthinapuram to aid `proper redistribution'. The `rate' per line varies from Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 15,000 and in case of multi-storey complexes, it is anywhere between Rs. 50,000 and Rs. 1 lakh.

This has raised the puzzling question of the large number of illegal connections becoming popular, and whether the Municipality came up with an alternative that would be both legal and affordable. The total number of authorised connections in the town are about 8,500 and the number slated for regularisation is 2,500. There appears to be no word on the pending applications seeking legal connections.

The president of the Federation of Pallavapuram Residents Welfare Associations, Mr. V. Santhanam, said the order condoned the illegal activity, instead of punishing the offenders and had left law abiding citizens in the lurch. The Federation had resolved to seek legal redress against the regularisation drive.

The illegal activity has affected the town's re- distribution network as large-sized pipes had been indiscriminately connected to the mains. Houses at the tail-end of the distribution lines did not receive water, he said. The local body receives about 25 lakh litres of water a day under the Alandur Pallavaram Combined Palar Water Supply Scheme.

Despite the happenings, a number of senior residents have told the municipal chairman that they wanted authorised and legal connections alone and were not willing to be party to the illegal activity. The question remains: how much effort did the municipality put in, to come up with a viable connection offer ?

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