Amritsar, June 10: To address the significant number of illegal water connections plaguing the city, the municipal corporation has announced plans to hold special camps aimed at regularizing these unauthorized lines. This initiative comes as a large segment of the population currently depends on illicit connections for their drinking water.
Data reveals a stark discrepancy: while the city boasts 2.65 lakh households, only 1.92 lakh water and sewerage connections are officially registered with the municipal corporation. Sources within the water and sewerage supply wing estimate that the rollout of new water supply lines under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) over recent years has led to a surge, with up to 70,000 illegal connections now in use.
Municipal Corporation Commissioner Gulpreet Singh Aulakh recently convened a meeting with officials from the Operation and Maintenance Cell and the Water Supply and Sewerage Department to strategize a solution. “Camps will be organized at the zonal level to regularize connections that have already been provided to households through various projects,” Aulakh stated.
Regularizing these connections is crucial not only for increasing the municipal corporation’s revenue but also for improving policy planning. Officials note that existing tubewells, installed to meet the demands of registered connections, frequently become defunct or struggle to meet public requirements due to the added burden of illegal connections. An official emphasized the urgency, saying, “Before the implementation of the canal-based surface water project, all the connections should be regularized, otherwise the project would not meet the expectations of public.”
During these regularization camps, residents will also be able to fill out forms for property tax assessment, allowing water supply and sewerage connections to be interlinked with property tax records. Commissioner Aulakh appealed to the public to voluntarily regularize their unauthorized connections.
To regularize their connections, residents will need to provide a connection form, a self-declaration, a copy of their property registry, Aadhaar card, electricity bill, two passport-size photographs of the applicant, and a copy of their property tax receipt. The schedule for these camps will be announced soon.
Officials warned that if residents fail to regularize their unauthorized water and sewerage connections after receiving notices, action will be taken under Section 189 of the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act, 1976.
