BENGALURU: Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), which had in January set up two vigilance squads to act against illegal water connection, has detected 800 violations and registered 700 cases at the jurisdictional police stations for further action.
Sharing information about the raids, a senior BWSSB official said, "Through our unaccounted for water project we have successfully curbed illegal connections in the core areas. But we have lot to do on the city outskirts, because that is where the water board is losing lot of its rightful revenue."
Without the knowledge of our divisional engineers, people illegally divert water from our main lines. They even take the help of local plumbers to get the job done, he explained.
Another major area of concern is the tampering of water meters, he said. So to curb all these kind of illegalities, these two squads were set up.
These teams carry out surprise visits and check if there is any illegal connection or meter tampering. They also collect information from people and carry out raids based on tip offs.
Once an illegal connection is found, the offender is slapped with a notice. In addition, the water board has powers, under Section 108 of the BWSSB Act, 1964, to file criminal cases against the guilty, the senior BWSSB maintained.
Those who were served notices have the option of getting the connection regularised by paying a fine from the date the building got connection or face action, The ones who are not willing to regularise the connection, will be referred to the local police station, who will register an FIR, he explained.
