BENGALURU: Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) has so far found 1,602 illegal connections in the city and said that heavy penalties will be levied on households indulging in this kind of water theft. S V Venkatesh, Chief Engineer, Maintenance (East), BWSSB, told The New Indian Express, “Out of 1.7 lakh water connections inspected in Bengaluru East during the drive which began mid-June, we have discovered 978 bypass connections. In Bengaluru West, 1 lakh connections were checked and 624 such connections were found.“
The city has a total of 1,07,352 Cauvery water connections. “We have covered 2.7 lakh connections as on date. We plan to check every connection within the next two months,” he added. The proposed fine amount of Rs 10,000 was approved last month. “It will reflect in the water bill of those households whose bypass connection were disconnected recently,” he added. “In addition to it, these families will also be levied six times the water bill of their regular water connection which will be reflected in the bill a month later,” Venkatesh said.
“A special squad has been constituted to carry out these drives. The BWSSB has also filed a complaint against 1,000-plus connections to the Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force (BMTF),” said BWSSB Chairman N Jayaram.