What is worse, private builders have interpreted a recent Supreme Court (sc) ruling in a manner which enables them to charge high water tariffs from residents. The sc recently ordered the enforcement of an agreement between dlf, a private building construction group, and the residents welfare associations of dlf. The residents would now have to pay Re 1 per square yard as maintenance plus water charges at the rate decided by huda (see table: Extra burden). Taking advantage of the order, private builders are charging residents even for groundwater, which they get free of cost. This, when the sc's order was delivered on the premise that the entire water would come from the canal.
Excessive dependence on groundwater has also led to a 16-metre decrease in the water table of the town in the past 20 years, a huda official said.
