The BMC had first sanctioned the policy in 2016 following a December 2014 order of the Bombay High Court, which stated that water supply is a fundamental right, irrespective of whether the house is legal or illegal. However, the BMC policy put several terms for the implementation of the policy, and only a handful of slum dwellers actually received the connection.

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“We received 1,666 applications from across the city so far, out of which almost 80 per cent applicants have been granted permission and the process of laying the pipelines has started. At least 782 applicants have received connections till now,” said Purushottam Malvade, chief of the Hydraulic Engineering Department.

“There are around 150 slums with 20 lakh population that don’t have water connection. People buy water from tankers, illegal connections, slums/buildings and pay manyfold for it,” said Sitaram Shelar, activist and founder of Pani Haq Samiti. He added that though the BMC has a good initiative through the policy, it needs to speed up.

Civic officials said that the process was slow due to the monsoon. They couldn’t grant permission for digging or trenching to lay the pipelines during the rainy season, and this affected the pace of the work. But now after the monsoon, more people will get the connections if they follow the procedure.

782
No of applicants who received the connections