Water shortage in Mumbai slums, leads to water theft

MUMBAI - A non-governmental organization in Mumbai exposed a suspected water thief by laying down a trap here on Thursday.

The trap claimed to have been laid out after receiving a tip off that some woman was pilfering filtered water from the municipal corporation’s main pipeline and selling it illegally to several colonies.

After nabbing her, the water thief’s face was blackened and the women activists of the NGO took her all around in the colony.

According to Fernandes Agnello, President of the NGO from Mahim, Swabhiman Sanghatana, the woman identified as Sharmila sold water after tapping it from the main pipeline of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

He also mentioned that several members of the BMC including elected representatives to BMC and the police are hand in glove with the lady.

“A lady named Sharmila in Koliwada (fishermen’s) colony in Mahim area. The water supply timings in Mahim are between 7 to 10 a.m. By tapping the main BMC (city’s Corporation) line she used to distribute water in the colony at for rupees 300 to 500. Since everybody has a personal water connection and tap in that colony she would target other colonies and supply water to these neighbourhoods. The local Municipal Corporation Councillor, police and all member of BMC are involved in this,” said Fernandes Agnello.

He mentioned that they had been looking for her after they receiving a call on their toll free number.

“Somebody called up on our toll-free number to inform that such a thing was happening in the building number 12 and 14. As such since the past two days we had been chasing her in different attires and even conducted a sting operation to find her misdemeanour activities,” added Fernandes Agnello.By Anand Shrivastav(ANI)