Former corporators across party lines have demanded that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) compensate citizens over the recent pipeline damage that led to disruption in water supply for three consecutive days in several pockets of suburban Mumbai. Former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) corporator Pankaj Yadav wrote to municipal commissioner and state-appointed administrator Iqbal Singh Chahal seeking compensation to citizens who faced inconvenience due to water supply disruption. “Since water supply was disrupted, residents from several housing societies had to undertake additional financial expenses to get water from private water tankers who also charge citizens exorbitantly during a crisis,” said Yadav. On November 30, a water supply pipeline of the BMC was damaged by a private contractor while they were carrying out drilling work for the Mumbai Metro railway project in Andheri (East). The civic authorities on Monday imposed a Rs 1.33 crore fine on the contractor owing to the loss of water supply. “Civic authorities should compensate the residents from the penalty money that will be paid by the contractors to the authorities,” he said. Ravi Raja, former Leader of Opposition (LoP) and Congress corporator posted on X saying that the penalty amount should be higher. “BMC engineers worked tirelessly to repair the damage and in spite of this, the contractor is penalised only for Rs 1.3 crore? Why? I am sure the cost of repair must be much more than that? And what about the suffering of people? The fine should be such that the contractor should feel the pinch. It should teach a lesson to all the contractors in future whose recklessness causes trouble to Mumbaikars,” said Raja in his post. Due to the pipeline damage, water supply to four municipal wards in Mumbai was disrupted and it took the BMC more than 50 hours to repair the pipeline.
