Pay price for every drop of water
At a situation when many cities are facing water crisis across the country, one cannot imagine paying a bribe to the govt. officers to get even that scanty little water.
A high percentage of reporters on our site speak of experiences of how the government officers bag money from them to give water connections. A resident of Chennai had to pay Rs. 10,000 to the water board to procure water supply connection. A middleman who collects bribe for the Chennai Water Board threatened him saying, “You cannot say that you will not pay us Rs.10K. You don’t have a choice. You have to pay.”
A Bangalorean informed us that he, along with his neighbors had to pay Rs. 80,000 per month to the water tankers as they do not get water through government water supply. The water tankers collect water from the Water Supply and Sewerage department and sell the water to other people at a rate of Rs. 600 to Rs. 1,000 per tanker. As he has written, “we don’t get water and are forced to pay the Tanker mafia who are hand in glove with the water supply department. I paid and am paying a bribe for water.”
There are also reports that speak of the water mafia joining hands with the government officers to make people pay through their nose to obtain water. Here is a story of a Bangalorean who fought with corrupt government officers. Every week he paid Rs. 300 per water tanker but did not bow down to the demands of the officers of the Water Supply and Sewerage Department. He was charged Rs. 10,000 to get the water connection but he did not agree to pay. As he commented, India has become so corrupt that now for the basic necessities of life we have to pay bribe.