HC ruling helps resolve Pandesara water dispute

Following the Gujarat High Court's interim ruling on Friday on the issue of outstanding water bills, units of Pandesara GIDC deposited Rs 1 crore with the Surat Municipal Corporation. In return, the corporation restored water connection to Pandesara on Saturday.

As per the court ruling, the latest water bills were readjusted as per the 65 per cent formula to Rs 4 crore. It directed the industries to deposit Rs 1 crore with the SMC at the earliest. It also asked the SMC to restore water connections to the industries.

In view of the HC ruling, the Pandesara Green Environment and Water Welfare Co-operative Society, which represents the Pandesara industries, deposited Rs 1 crore with the SMC on Saturday. On it's part, SMC restored the water connections to the industries.

As far as payment of the remaining Rs 3 crore is concerned, the HC is expected to give its next ruling on August 31. The Pandesara industries and the SMC have been at loggerheads ever since the end of the last year after exposure of the water pilfering scandal.

SMC issued water bills worth R. 47.30 crore to the industries. The industries deposited 10 per cent of the bill amount with SMC, mainly due to the pressure of municipal commissioner G R Aloria.

With Aloria mounting further pressure on them for payment of the remaining dues, the industries took the matter to court. In between, SMC went ahead and issued two more notices to the industries for recovery of the water bills.

Recently, SMC issued another round of bills of Rs 7 crore to the industries for water used by them between January and August this year.

On nonpayment, SMC disconnected water connections to all the defaulter industries on Wednesday. The Pandesara industries went on an indefinite strike from Thursday. The strike was called off on Saturday.