Vijay Sharma, a resident of Sector 28, said, ``The situation has reached such a pass that we wait for hours at hand pumps for our turn. Last summer the situation was not like this. The erratic water supply and the use of the jet pumps connected directly to the main line by affluent residents has added to the problems.''

The water required for the population of 11 lakh that falls in the municipal area is far more than the supply. Only 320 lakh gallons of water are supplied to the city by 282 tube-wells as against the demand which is 520 lakh gallons of water.

Surprisingly, while no development scheme to cope up with the situation was worked out for the production of more water this year, for the next year the Municipal Corporation and the Haryana Urban Development Authority have planned a joint venture scheme to meet the actual demand. The scheme Rainy-well Yojana with an estimated cost of Rs 40 crore has been sanctioned by the state government.

``The yojna would be able to provide 90 lakh gallons of water to the city during the next summer,'' said an official of the municipal corporation. Work on the plan is expected to begin this September.

The worst affected areas are Parbatia Colony, Jawahar Colony, Dabua, and other locality that falls under the NIT area. ``This year the number of tankers have been reduced and even the tankers deputed for our destination sometimes go to the other colonies after they are paid some extra money,'' said Sonu Bhatia, a resident of Parbatia Colony.

However, B.S. Ranolia, superintending engineer in the municipal corporation Claimed that 150 tankers are catering to the need of the people in the city which is more than the previous year. ``Under section 144 of the Cr Pc the district authority has even asked the private tanker owners, who were selling the water on their own, to be ready for their use by the government if required,'' said the municipal commissioner Abhishek Likhi. Likhi clarified that motor pumps and tube-wells used for the commercial purposes at service stations, dairy farms and Ice and Soda water establishments have been disconnected to provide more water to residential areas.