Crackdown against water tankers without CCTV cameras installed from Monday: Pune city police

Pune: Senior police officers in the city have said that a drive will start from Monday to check if tanker operators have complied with the mandate to install 360-degree CCTV cameras in their vehicles, with the deadline to do the same having long passed by.

Additional commissioner of police Manoj Patil told TOI, “We gave them additional time as well, because we learnt that procuring the camera equipment was proving difficult. Now, the checks will start and those who haven’t installed the needful will face action. We won’t allow such tankers to operate and penal action will also be initiated against the owners, as per provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act.”

The issue had erupted last month, after two individuals died in separate accidents involving speeding water tankers on April 5 and April 7, respectively. While the first incident took place on NIBM Annexe Road, the second took place in Wanowrie.

These incidents were almost immediately followed by a local corporator claiming to have caught another tanker driver on duty in an inebriated condition. The slew of events had triggered a massive protest in the Mohammadwadi area, including a candle march. Police were prodded to take action, with stress laid on mandating that tanker operators either hire attendants for all their vehicles or install CCTV cameras.

On April 15, tanker operators went on an indefinite strike in Mohammadwadi and Undri, paralysing water supply for thousands of residents. They ended the strike on the same evening after the police gave them a 15-day deadline for installation of CCTV cameras in their vehicles.

Residents of the Undri-Mohammadwadi areas told TOI that they have not come across any water tankers with an attendant or camera installed in recent days. An Undri resident, opting for anonymity, said, “They pretty much blackmailed us and then increased water tanker rates as well, claiming that camera installation is a costly additional expense. But where are the cameras? My society gets five to six tankers daily and we have not seen a single attendant or camera yet. If I say this on the record, they will target us and stop water supply.”

A senior office-bearer of a housing society, who stays in the NIBM Annexe Road area, agreed and said, “Tanker operators held us at ransom with their strike, but at least the whole brouhaha forced Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to look into providing us with regular water supply via overhead tanks. As far as water tankers are concerned, they still drive rashly and have no attendants and CCTV cameras installed. Many of us stop on the road we spot a tanker and let it pass with a wide berth.”

When TOI spoke to a tanker driver stationed in the NIBM Annexe area on Thursday, he said he had no idea about the CCTV mandate. “The summer is brutal this time and people need more water, so hence trips have gone up. I don’t know anything about CCTV cameras or helpers,” he said.

Sushant Lonkar, a tanker operator who spearheaded the strike in April, said there have been problems in procuring cameras in the market. “Many tanker operators got them and fixed them on the vehicles, but others are in the process still. We didn’t know the police were set to start a drive from Monday onwards. We will talk to our associates and if we find that many operators still have to install the cameras, we will have a discussion with the senior police officers,” Lonkar said.