CHENNAI: Some residents of Purasaiwakkam have been paying around ₹3,000 as annual water taxes and charges, without water running in their underground water pipelines for 15 years.
More than 130 buildings on Raja Annamalai Road and Alagappa Road in Purasaiwakkam, which are hardly 300m away from the Poonamallee High Road do not have water supply.
“Until last year, we used to complain to Metrowateron the official website about having no water supply.They always deleted our complaints,” saidBhavesh J, a resident of Raja Annamalai Road. “Now, we have given up. What’s the use of complaining if they just delete our complaints without any resolution.”
The residents are currently using borewell water and when it runs dry, they resort to water tankers. “During the summer, every building shells out around ₹2,000 for water tankers every day,” said Bhavesh.
Another resident of Purasaiwakkam, Rakesh S said that neighbours also help with their borewell water if our bore does not yield enough. “Our water lines were laid 43 years ago, and suddenly we stopped getting water one day.”
Area 8 Metrowater engineer S P Jeyaprakash told TOI, “I will arrange to check the lines on Monday.” As per the citizen’s charter of Metrowater, it should take only five days to rectify poor or no water supply. But it has been 15 years without water supply in this area.
A citizen’s charter is a union government-mandated document of commitments made by a government agency assuring people to benefit from their services.
Former Metrowater official S Srinivasan said, “Those areas must have decades-old pipelines which would have had leaks. Pipelines in many core city areas are yet to be replaced.”
The water board is yet to get road-cut permission to check the underground pipe, said another Metrowater official. “We will set it right after the monsoon because we cannot do road cuts now,” he added.
More than 130 buildings on Raja Annamalai Road and Alagappa Road in Purasaiwakkam, which are hardly 300m away from the Poonamallee High Road do not have water supply.
“Until last year, we used to complain to Metrowateron the official website about having no water supply.They always deleted our complaints,” saidBhavesh J, a resident of Raja Annamalai Road. “Now, we have given up. What’s the use of complaining if they just delete our complaints without any resolution.”
The residents are currently using borewell water and when it runs dry, they resort to water tankers. “During the summer, every building shells out around ₹2,000 for water tankers every day,” said Bhavesh.
Another resident of Purasaiwakkam, Rakesh S said that neighbours also help with their borewell water if our bore does not yield enough. “Our water lines were laid 43 years ago, and suddenly we stopped getting water one day.”
Area 8 Metrowater engineer S P Jeyaprakash told TOI, “I will arrange to check the lines on Monday.” As per the citizen’s charter of Metrowater, it should take only five days to rectify poor or no water supply. But it has been 15 years without water supply in this area.
A citizen’s charter is a union government-mandated document of commitments made by a government agency assuring people to benefit from their services.
Former Metrowater official S Srinivasan said, “Those areas must have decades-old pipelines which would have had leaks. Pipelines in many core city areas are yet to be replaced.”
The water board is yet to get road-cut permission to check the underground pipe, said another Metrowater official. “We will set it right after the monsoon because we cannot do road cuts now,” he added.