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 to requisition private water tankers, wells and borewells to streamline water supply with the help of police and the transport commissionerate.
“The Disaster Management Act 2005 was invoked in the view of the indefinite strike called by tanker operators in opposition to the revised guidelines of Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA) and to avert any disruption in essential water supply during the summer season,” it said.