Mumbai’s 20,000 restaurants held ransom by water tanker strike
Image Courtesy: Mid Day
The tanker owners’ association held Mumbai’s restaurants to ransom on Tuesday when it stopped thousands of trucks from plying for eight hours.
The tanker owners’ association had called for a strike to protest against the 20 plus notices sent by the BMC to tanker owners who were allegedly operating without valid licenses. Over 2500 tankers belonging to 120-150 owners did not ply between noon to 8 pm yesterday.
Currently, water tanker owners are required to obtain a license from the BMC as per Sections 390 (for operating electric pump) and 394 (public health) under the Municipal Corporation Act. In addition, if the tanker wants to park on roads to fill water, it needs a NOC from traffic police.
The tanker owners called for a strike after BMC sent notices to many over violations and demanded immediate action.
The strike was called off after Industries Minister Subhash Desai met the tanker operators and assured them of co-operation.
Owing to the water crisis, BMC has imposed a 15 per cent water cut in the city. As a result, a majority of restaurants rely on water tankers for their daily needs. The strike affected 300 hotels and 20,000 restaurants from the city, most of whom had to either pay more to arrange for water at the last minute or shut their hotels.
Popular joints like The Good Wife, Dishkiyaoon and SodaBottleOpenerWala had shut the restaurants due to the lack of water.
