Southern States - Tamil Nadu   

Water supply disconnection for non-compliance only after Oct. 10

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI AUG. 27. The Tamil Nadu Government has clarified that actual disconnection of water supply for houses, which fail to instal a rainwater-harvesting structure before the August 31 deadline, will start only on October 10.

Making a submission before the First Bench of the Madras High Court during arguments on a public interest litigation petition against the `manner in which the scheme is sought to be implemented', the Advocate-General, N.R. Chandran, today said if houses failed to have an RWH structure on their own by August 31, the local bodies would instal the facility and collect the actual expenditure from the owners.

Disconnection of water supply for the defaulting buildings, as provided for in the impugned Ordinance IV of 2003, would come into effect only if the order was not complied with even after October 10, Mr. Chandran said. Referring to the petitioner's argument that a short deadline had given rise to an `opportunity cost' in the form of spiralling prices of materials and masonry, he said, "cost cannot be a consideration for opposing the ordinance".

When the Chief Justice, B. Subhashan Reddy, who lauded the objective of the scheme, wanted to know what sort of awareness campaign had been carried out by the Government, Mr. Chandran said advertisements were being run in the media. Asked whether there was any scheme to conserve rainwater on public land and roads, Mr. Chandran said necessary steps had been taken.

Earlier, Mr. Justice Reddy, pointing out that the water supply disconnection threat was not near, declined to accede to the senior counsel, K.M. Vijayan's plea for restraining the Government and its agents from implementing the penal provisions of the ordinance.

He said, "It is a good scheme. We in the High Court are also suffering from water scarcity".

The judge, who sat on the Bench along with Justice A. Kulasekaran, nevertheless, wondered whether the entire population covered by the ordinance would be able to meet the deadline, more so when only four more days were left.

In his petition, Mr. Vijayan had complained that, thanks to the short deadline and stringent punishment for defaulters, many contractors and unscrupulous traders were making `unjust enrichment'.

Also, the Corporation did not have any power to tamper with water supply connection as it was within the ambit of the Water and Drainage Board.

The First Bench has adjourned the matter for two weeks.

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