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Strike by private water tankers called off, tankers get license to draw water
Posted on: 22/Aug/2019 9:55:52 AM
Just recently it was announced that starting from 21st August 2019 private water tankers would be going on for an indefinite strike. The news that has come out now is this strike has been called off. Information collected is the state government has promised to issue licenses to these private water tankers to draw water from the agricultural and private bore wells in 302 villages in Chennai, Kancheepuram and Chengalpet districts.
As many as 100 licences for transporting water and as many as 52 licences to extract water has been issued by the Chennai based metro water. The Tiruvallur collector had issued as many as 44 licences.
As per Mr. Hariharan, managing director of metro water it is clear that the department had meetings with 50 water tanker owners and assured them that licences would be given in couple of days. He hinted that a liaison officer would be appointed for each district. It must be noted that the licences would be valid for a period of 90 days and after that further talks would take place. Other important personalities who made their presence felt were Mr. Prabhu Shankar, metro water executive director and Mr. Harminder Singh, municipal and rural administration secretary.
It is important to mention that the private water tanker owners association had announced about an indefinite strike from 21st August mentioning that the drivers and owners were harassed and booked for theft.
As per Mr. Nijalingam, president of the association, 20 cases were booked in Chennai city alone. He spoke about how government must frame rules and issue licences and how the private water tankers were involved in bridging the gap. He expressed his unhappiness about the village level officers not only involved in seizing the lorry’s and booking cases but also involved in damaging pump sets, bore wells and tankers leading to huge loss. In the state of TN, there are as many as 15,000 water tankers and out of these 4500 water tankers ply in Chennai city drawing water from farm wells, open wells and quarries located on the outskirts.
As per Madras High Court, extraction of water without proper licenses would be regarded as an offense. The HC asked the government to frame rules to give licences and it would include the sources of water, limits of extraction, meters and supply details etc. Eight months back, a committee was formed by the government and a draft was submitted to the chief minister of TN is known.
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