Steep water tariff in GMADA areas of Mohali is key issue for MC polls

The higher water tariff in 12 sectors under the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) has become a hot topic for the Mohali municipal corporation (MC) elections likely to be held in February next year.

The residents of Sectors 66 to 69 and 76 to 81, 88 and Aerocity, with a combined population of around one lakh, are at present paying five times the amount charged in other areas under the MC.

Area councillors and residents of the affected areas have held several protests and even moved the Lok Adalat, for which the next date of hearing has been fixed on December 7 this year.

Efforts to solve the matter have failed. In June last year the MC house approved the agenda of taking over the water supply system from new sectors, which was approved on July 16 by the local bodies department of Punjab.

“The high water tariff is a major issue in the upcoming elections. We have held a number of protests and made several representations to the authorities concerned. People of GMADA sectors are only talking about the water parity issue,” said Sucha Singh Kalaur, president of the Plot Allotment and Development Welfare Committee, Sectors 76 to 80.

MP Singh, president of the Residents’ Welfare and Development Committee, Sector 79, said it was strange that the officials concerned had not been able to sort out the issue despite approvals from the local bodies department.

Blaming the Congress government for the problem, former Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) area councillor of Sector 80, Surinder Singh, said, most of the sectors were represented by SAD councillors in the MC so their pleas were not accepted by the government.

Blaming the SAD for “playing dirty politics,” Punjab cabinet minister Balbir Singh Sidhu asked why the party “allowed an increase in rates when the areas were under MC and not fully developed.”

However, Sidhu gave the assurance that he had taken up the matter with the authorities concerned and it would be sorted out soon.