India News | Maha Govt Sends 10 Water Tankers to Thane Village Per Day After HC Pulls It Up for Poor Supply

Mumbai, Sep 14 (PTI) The Maharashtra government on Tuesday told the Bombay High Court that it has started supplying 10 tankers of drinking water each day to Kambe village in Thane district, which, until earlier this month, had been receiving water for only two hours twice a month.

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The state government's action has come after the court pulled it up for having failed to supply drinking water to the village, and termed it shameful that such problems existed even after 75 years of independence.

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In an affidavit filed in the High Court through STEM Water Distribution and Infra Company Pvt Ltd, a joint venture of the Thane zilla parishad and Bhiwandi Nizampur City Municipal Corporation, the state said it had been sending 10 tankers of drinking water from September 10 and each tanker has a capacity of around 10,000 to 13,000 litres of water.

The water supply has been arranged following orders passed by the High Court last week.

On September 9, a bench of Justices S J Kathawala and Milind Jadhav had directed the state government to take immediate steps to provide water for people of Kambe village.

The court had noted at the time that citizens have a fundamental right to receive regular supply of potable water.

The bench was hearing a petition filed by residents of Kambe village in Bhiwandi taluka of Thane district, who had alleged that since their village had almost 300 illegal water connections, they were not provided with regular water supply by the state authorities.

In its affidavit on Tuesday, STEM submitted that the state authorities had decided to lay a new pipeline to supply drinking water to the village, and also said that it will undertake a drive to disconnect illegal water connections with the local police's help.

Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhkoni submitted the affidavit before the bench detailing both the short-term and long-term plans that the state proposes to take to ensure regular drinking water to the village.

The process of laying the new pipeline will take time and hence, as a temporary measure, STEM is providing drinking water in 10 tankers on a daily basis, the affidavit stated.

The water is being stored in the main tank in the village, from where the local Gram Panchayat supplies it to residents, it said.

The state government also told the court that a private security agency, which secures the pipeline that supplies drinking water to Mumbai, will also provide its service for pipelines supplying water to Kambe village.

The court will hear the plea further on September 30.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)