GUWAHATI, Nov 4 - Welcoming the drive against illegal extraction of water from Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC)-run water supply pipes by unscrupulous citizens, public activist Prof Deven Dutta has said that it was precisely due to the laxity of the GMC authorities including successive GMC commissioners (excluding the incumbent one) and the Mayor and his Council that water thieves were enjoying a field day, while subjecting the tax-paying consumers to great hardship.
�The ongoing drive by the GMC is a welcome development and needs to be praised by right-thinking sections. Water thieves have been drawing water from GMC pipes by using suction pumps for years under the very nose of the authorities for reasons best known to them. The crackdown should continue till the violations are completely stopped,� Prof Dutta said.
Accusing the GMC Mayor and his Council of being silent for long, Prof Dutta said that they had been reduced to complete non-performers. �The councillors are unaware about the problems in their localities and remain in a state of stupor. We also need to ask what role the four local MLAs and the MP who happen to be GMC members, have been playing. Similarly, what were the GMC commissioners prior to the incumbent one doing all these years?� he said.
Pointing out that honest tax-payers were being deprived of an essential service due to rampant water theft, Prof Dutta questioned the role of the area members who failed to monitor the situation even in a small area. �What kind of public representatives are they and what kind of self-governance is this? They are doing nothing but taking salaries,� he added.
