Mumbai Water Tankers' Strike Called Off After Meeting With Civic Body Chief

The water tanker association in Mumbai called off their four-day strike after a meeting with the city's civic body chief. The association began its "indefinite break" from supplying water after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) issued notices to owners of private wells that supply water to the tankers.

The Municipal Commissioner of BMC, Bhusan Gagrani, has assured the associations that the notices will be revoked until the issue is dealt with by the Central Ground Water Authority.

Amol Mandhare, Treasurer, Mumbai Water Tanker Association, told NDTV that, "We have called off our strike, our intentions were never to hurt Mumbaikars, but we didn't have any options. We have put forward all our demands to the BMC Commissioner. He has assured us that resolve it with the Central Government. We are also planning to go to Court over this, and all notices by the BMC will be taken back. The supply will be resumed immediately."

The notices affected water supply to residential societies, railways and construction projects. The association has over 1,700 registered tankers, with a capacity of up to 20,000 litres, supplying water to different parts of Mumbai.

Yesterday, when the association refused to call back the strike, the Mumbai civic body invoked the Disaster Management Act "in the larger public interest" to streamline water supply with the help of police and the transport commissionerate.

"The Disaster Management Act 2005 was invoked in view of the indefinite strike called by tanker operators in opposition to the revised guidelines of the Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA) and to avert any disruption in essential water supply during the summer season," it said.

It is a standard procedure formulated for the streamlined water supply to housing societies and other stakeholders.

Last week, MWTA spokesperson Ankur Sharma told news agency PTI, "The authorities have made 200 sq m land, proof of lease or ownership of well, installation of digital water flow meter, adherence of BIS standard, accurate measurement of daily intake and some other things mandatory, besides taking a no objection certificate (NOC) from the Central Ground Water Authority.

"It is difficult to implement all these rules in a city like Mumbai. Unless there are some relaxations in these conditions by the government, tanker services will not resume," he said.

The association earlier refused to pull back the decision to call a strike despite Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis asking the BMC to come up with a solution.