Civic body needs to find a way to stop manhole lid thefts

The 58-storey Auris Serenity is the tallest tower in Malad

A thief allegedly made off with manhole lids from the footpath outside a residential society in Malad (W). The society's secretary registered a police complaint. There was an investigation that led to an arrest.

There was CCTV footage from the area, identifying the accused. The arrested individual has a history of 16 sewerage manhole lid theft cases registered against him in various police stations in the city, including Bandra, Goregaon, Dahisar, Nalasopara, Santacruz, Vakola, and others. He had previously been arrested by the Santacruz police but was released on bail before committing the recent crime in the Malad area.

Jabir Ali is a drug addict and resorts to theft to finance his drug addiction, said a report.

The report also states these scrap dealers sell lids to people in another state, and there is a larger operation at play. We have, earlier too, claimed that the government has to look into the task of manhole lids and find a way out, fixing them so that they cannot be moved except by authorised personnel. There will surely be some way in which we can secure these.

After so many incidents where people have lost lives, the long-standing problems of stolen lids a solution is in order and in fact, disappointingly delayed.

Meanwhile, signage near some manholes or even at some strategic points stating that removing manhole lids is a crime, inviting jail time may be needed. This may not be a huge deterrence but will definitely bring some awareness about interfering with the infrastructure.

There cannot be a better time to implement plans for securing covers, than now. The monsoon is just over and we need to expedite this on an absolute urgent basis. All the upgradation notwithstanding, it is basics like these which are important cogs in keeping the Metro machine working smoothly.