HC directs Avadi Municipality to provide water supply to homes

The Madras High Court has directed the Avadi Municipality to quickly provide water connections to over 18,000 applicants in that area and submit a compliance report on December 16.
The Court gave the direction while disposing of a PIL by N Babu Ganesh of Avadi, that came up last week.
It also said it would like to monitor the same for some time to ensure that there was no further delay in the matter.
The Court then posted the matter for further hearing on December 16.
The petitioner submitted that funds were sanctioned under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) scheme for metro water works in Avadi Municipality area and the work was to be completed within a period of two years.

However, it remained incomplete, triggering agitations in 2009 and 2011, following which the Municipality gave an assurance that water will be supplied from Puzhal Lake shortly.

Even though certain amount of deposits were collected from the residents of the area in 2009, towards the water connections and supply of metro water, there was no response from the authorities with regard to supply of water, he alleged.
When he had sought information through RTI, the authorities had in response stated that the scheme had commenced on November 11, 2009 and was in progress.
The counsel of the Municipality appeared and submitted that 95 percent work was completed and already 100 connections were given.

When the Court asked as to when the connections would be given to all the applicants, the counsel replied that 1000 connections will be given per month.
The Court then said, "We fail to appreciate the aforesaid position for the reason that if 1000 connections per month are given and as per their own case about 18,000 applications were pending, then it will take 18 months to provide connections alone in a project which was to be completedwithin 2 yearsand has already taken 7 years."
"We, thus, call upon the Avadi Municipality to devise a methodology to ensure that these connections are given quickly and submit a compliance report before us in this behalf. We would also monitor the matter for some time to ensure that there is no further delay," it said.