Water mafia looting people in 110 villages: AAP

Bengaluru: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has alleged that the Yediyurappa government looted people in 110 villages through tanker mafia.

"It has been 13 years since these 110 villages were included under the Bruhath Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) but are still deprived of the basic facilities like water," the AAP stated in a press conference.

Shantala Damle, State co-convener of AAP said that the BJP government was busy resorting to 'hafta vasooli' from these people.

She said that the BJP government was not providing any facilities. Earlier BJP government used to collect Rs 150 per sqft as betterment charges from these villages which have a total population of around 12 lakhs but the same has now been hiked to Rs 400 per sqft. "An amount of Rs 5,400 crore has been spent in the name of providing Kaveri water and good sewage system. This water tanker mafia is worth over 150 crore a year and no one is talking about this issue as the money is accumulating in the pockets of local politicians."

Some of the demands of AAP are: Order raising the betterment charges should be withdrawn immediately.

Betterment charges should be collected only from those households where the state government is providing clean water and good sewage system

Government should supply clean water till the Kaveri water is made available at a nominal price of Rs 200 – Rs 300 and the tanker mafia should be stopped.