With 80 per cent burns More is struggling for life at a Byculla Hospital. Doctors said her condition continues to be critical, though she is responding to medicines. Police late last night arrested another person taking the count of those arrested in connection with the ghastly incident to four. Three people were arrested immediately after More identified them in a statement to a special executive officer.

With the burning of Meena More the inauguration of the tap - the only source of water for a portion of Chinchpada - has been put on hold, indefinitely.Not just that, activists of Nagri Vikas Aghadi, the party to which More belonged, are now claiming that the tap would not be allowed to be installed at the original spot, while the residents near the spot have declared that they would brook no interference in this matter.

``This is the source of our Meena Madam's misery,'' said Vikas More, an Aghadi activist in the area, pointing to a cement block where the tap was to have been installed. He seemed oblivious to the fact that his remark invited dark looks from the residents around. Perhaps he was comforted by the presence of a posse of police that is camping in the basti.

Water has been a perennial problem for hutment dwellers of Chinchpada. Only eight municipal taps supply water - at low pressure - to nearly 1,300 homes in the area. In the absence of a proper distribution network, fights often erupt between the families living near the taps and those coming from a neighbouring locality to fill water.

Linguistic differences also play a part inthese clashes. ``We North Indians are not allowed to draw water from these taps. These people claim that the water is meant only for Maharashtrians,'' said Kartik Bhattacharya, a resident of the locality, drawing vociferous support from others. Another resident Ramabai Kesarani recounted tales of obscenities that she had to endure whenever she went to draw water from these taps. Interestingly, these are the same charges put forth by Maharashtrians as well. According to Rajendra Pandey five out of the eight connections have been given in the areas dominated by Maharashtrians.

``I don't know what we will do now,'' he said shaking his head even as he berated More for ``self-immolation.'' He claimed that More was envious of the success of Yogendranath Pandey, one of the four accused of attacking her, in getting the connection cleared.

Many families in the colony trek a good half an hour to a leaking water pipe line near Rabale to collect water. These trips vary in number from three to five times a day. Formany of these people the new connection would have meant a facility of water-on-demand. That dream seems to have gone up in the flames which burnt their corporator.