Cash-strapped civic body Mineral Area Development Authority (Mada), which supplies water to Jharia and Katras circles of Dhanbad, is all set to shore up its revenues by giving people with illegal water connections, as well as water bill defaulters, the scope to pay up.

This, Mada hopes, will be a win-win for both the people and its own coffers.

Mada is currently carrying out a survey of illegal water connections and pipeline leaks in both Jharia and Katras circles.

Next week, camps at five offices of Mada (Jharia health circle office, Bhulan Barari health circle office, Katras health circle office, Putki health circle office, accounts department office in Dhanbad) will be held to start the process of legalising illegal water connections and getting back dues from bill defaulters.

The camps will provide the opportunity to the illegal water connection holders to legalise the facility by paying the required fee.

Big defaulters of water bills will be asked to come up with their bill details and seek permission to pay their outstanding amount in convenient installments.

A source in Mada said, “The camps will be held on two separate days of the week in all four health circle offices at Jharia, Pukti, Bhulan Barari and Katras, with dates to be decided soon. The camps at accounts department office of Mada at Dhanbad will be held on all six working days from Monday to Saturday during the office hours for next two months.”

Technical member of Mada, Indresh Shukla said the main aim of hosting these camps was to increase Mada revenues. “We are giving people a chance to make legal the services we give. We will also earn our legitimate fees in the process,” he said, adding that they would also accept new applications for water connections during the camps.

But, Shukla said they would take strict action against people with illegal connections and bill defaulters once the camps were over. “We are giving people a big window. But once that’s over, we will take stern action. We will snap illegal water connections and take action against the people concerned. Let no one perceive us as soft,” he said.

In January and February this year, similar camps were held by Mada, with a revenue target of Rs 2.5 crore, but it was not achieved. Mada at present supplies water from the Damodar to more than 10 lakh residents of Jharia and Katras its Jamadoba water treatment complex, and Topchanchi Lake water to some areas of Katras. It has 15,500 domestic and 6,000 commercial connections in Jharia and Katras.