Pay Rs 4000 to regularise water connection

     Raipur, March 14, 2010: Chhattisgarh government today decided to charge a one time penalty of Rs 4000 to regularise the illegal water connection to various households in the state.

     Every year the state government was spending about Rs 50 crore on drinking water and in return the local bodies were getting a return of only Rs 8.5 crore as revenue from the water supply system, presiding over a review meeting of the mayors of the state, Urban Development Minister Rajesh Munat said here today.

     The meeting, also addressed by Urban Development Secretary Jawahar Srivastav, expressed concern over the large number of illegal water connections in the state and was decided that all the illegal connections would be regularized by charging a penalty of Rs 4000 if that was done by April.

     Any such case of regularisation after the April 30 would be charged five times of this penalty, officials said.

     All the urban local bodies have been asked to carry out campaign to regularise the illegal drinking water connections.

     The Minister also asked them to conduct special campaign for collection of tax and arrears to strengthen their economic condition.