HC asks Pandesara units to pay Rs 3 cr

The Gujarat High Court on Thursday directed industries in Pandesara GIDC to deposit Rs 3 crore as part of the outstanding water bills with the Surat Municipal Corporation in two installments over the next two months.

As per the HC order, the industries will have to deposit half the amount with SMC before October 2 and the remaining half before November 2.

The SMC and Pandesara industries have been at loggerheads since the past several months, following the exposure of water pilfering. SMC had accused the industries of pilfering water from its network and had issued bills of Rs 47.30 crore to the industries.

The Pandesara industries, on the other hand, reasoned that they had paid the amount as per the bills issued by SMC and hence it was wrong on the part of the corporation to accuse them of water pilfering. The industries approached Gujarat High Court over the issue.

However, as the industries did not pay the outstanding bills, SMC disconnected water connections to the defaulter units on Wednesday last. The industries retaliated by announcing an indefinite strike from Thursday.

In its interim ruling on last Friday, the Gujarat High Court directed the industries to deposit Rs 1 crore with SMC the next day. The industries deposited the amount with the corporation on Saturday. The strike was also called off as SMC restored water connections to all the industries.

The industries will be shortly depositing the money with SMC. An industrialist of Pandesara, said: "We have been given a month's time to deposit Rs 1.50 crore, but we will not wait for that long, and will pay the money earlier."