As water tanker prices breached the ₹2,000 mark for the first time in Bengaluru, the State government has made registration of water tankers in the city mandatory by March 7 as a first step towards regulating the industry.
Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Chief Civic Commissioner Tushar Giri Nath on Wednesday said an online platform will go live on March 1.
“All water tankers have to self-register on this platform by March 7. Any vehicle unregistered after March 7 will be seized by the civic body and will be used to supply water to dry pockets free of cost in 110 villages,” he said.
He said since the State government had declared three taluks of Bengaluru Urban district as drought-hit, they had special powers under The Disaster Management Act, 2005, which will be invoked to take stringent action.
Water tanker operators have opposed the move and said it was wrong to portray them as a “mafia” and try to shift blame from the government’s failure to provide water supply infrastructure on them.
