Tanker mafia chokes residents

There have been a record 21 disruptions in supply totalling 200 hours since November 1998 itself, with five punctures in the pipeline attributable to suspected sabotage by the tanker lobby alone. In fact, since January 1999, the pipeline has been shut down for repairs eight times, causing three power supply stoppages.

The sabotage,says an official of the civic Water Supply Department, is engineered by tanker owners, whose sole purpose is to hike their rates. However, even when this is confirmed, there is little the Mira-Bhayander Municipal Council MBMC administration can do, given the violent means used by operators and the councillors, the official says.

8220;We know the pipe-bursts are deliberate so that tanker operators can hike rates over the weekend. But if we open our mouths we have to face the music.8221; For instance, he reveals, when a civic engineer had pointed out certain irregularities to the administration in October 1998, he was almost dismissed over allegations that he had himself got a 1.5-inch illegal water connection for his own building. 8220;After that, he never raised his voice again,8221; remembers his colleague.

The official adds: 8220;It is also no coincidence that every time the Temghar pipe is damaged, it takes place along the uninhabited stretch off Ghodbunder in Thane. Moreover, the damage is usually inflicted at theweekends and during long festivals, when the demand for water rises.8221;

According to a resident of Shanti Nath building on Navghar Road in Bhayander, their operator, Indu Water Supply, had increased his charges from Rs 750 per tanker to Rs 1,200 after a pipe-burst on February 28. In fact, she says, the day before the disruption, the brazen operator had told residents: 8220;Kal paani jaane ka chance hai.8221; She adds: 8220;Their hold over us is so perverse that we now pay him chai-paani in order to be apprised of a disruption in advance.8221;

The control over residents is so complete that any resistance is met with punishment by tanker operators and councillors who enlist the services of the municipal council. Says a resident of Adinath Society on Navghar Road: 8220;Two days after the society refused to pay the Rs 1,500 demanded by their tanker operator, Ekvira Water Suppliers, in October last year, residents received a terse note from the MBMC, saying their building had outstanding taxes amounting to Rs34,000. Finally, we thought paying the tankerwallah would be cheaper and so we gave in.8221;

With 40 per cent of the 6 lakh population in the twin townships totally dependent on water from private wells, the tanker mafia here looks upon residents purely as milch cows. And that is possible only due to the umbrella patronage they enjoy from Bhayander8217;s kingpin Gilbert Mendonca.

In turn, the former, six-time president of the MBMC who is currently in judicial custody, has two former Cabinet ministers from Thane district to thank for the tanker syndicate he now controls 8211; at least four water supply schemes for the townships are still pending before the state government8217;s Water Supply Department.

Explaining how tanker rates are fixed, one operator told Express Newsline: 8220;The dhani tanker owner gets a phone call from Mendonca8217;s office, informing him of the rates to be quoted every morning. The rates are decided over a round of drinks in a bar the previous night, depending on the currentscarcity and whether there is an approaching festival.8221;

The liquid gold plumbed from the 150-200 borewells by tanker operators amounts to an obscene Rs 1.5 lakh per month, says a tanker owner. But it is in the sweltering summer months, which coincides with the wedding season, that the operators really make a killing. 8220;Then, it is not uncommon for tanker owners to earn between Rs 3-5 lakh,8221; he says.

Of course, the tanker mafia is deeply indebted to Mendonca. The owner of 75 tankers today, the former MBMC chief has come a long way from his bootlegging past. He also has five serious offences registered against him including attempted murder and murder 1987. Mendonca, who was also ordered to be externed from Bhayander on August 26, 1994, however managed to get his patrons in the state Secretariat to revoke the order within a month. Now he is in judicial custody following a Bombay High Court order on January 21, 1999, asking the state government to dissolve the MBMC.

But Mendonca has already stashedaway a giant-size booty 8211; among his properties is a two-storey mansion, a bungalow at Uttan and another one near the Keshav Srishti housing complex en route to Uttan. Besides, his family also owns five cars, 75 tankers and 15 dumper trucks.

Incensed at his incarceration, Mendonca managed to almost incinerate two townships on March 3 and 5, purely to spite the powers-that-be. Plans to incite the townspeople were discussed at a meeting of tanker owners on the night of March 2, when it was decided that they would send party workers to the local wards and whip up passions, a local Congress worker told Express Newsline.

Residents were then organised into small groups with the agitation climaxing with a dharna on the railway tracks between Mira Road and Bhayander on the morning of March 3.