The accident was the flashpoint for incensed villagers, who charged to the site and attacked the driver and 30 other tankers ransacking the vehicles along the entire stretch of the road.

The villagers immediately and spontaneously blockaded the road to stop tankers approaching from Usgaon village, from where Vasai gets most of its water supply. Now, if Vasai's denizens want to be spared from near-drought, they will have to tune up their drums and do an almighty rain dance - unless the Shramjeevi Sanghatana spearheading the blockade backs down on its demand for Rs 8 lakh as compensation.

The taluka (which includes Vasai, Naigaon, Nalasopara and Virar) is in the grip of a year-round water crisis anddepends largely on tankers for supply. Vasai city itself depends on 220 tankers for its daily needs whereas the entire taluka gets the bulk of its supply from 320 vehicles. Most of the water is drawn from Usgaon village, 15 km from the city. However, with the Sanghatana choking off the road from Usgaon, an actual drought is feared. Residents are already watching every drop and skimping on daily ablutions, wondering whether they will have any water left to drink.

When the accident occurred on Wednesday, Vivek Pandit, the sanghatana's leader, arrived at the site and met with representatives of the Vasai Tanker Owners' Association (VTOA), demanded Rs 8 lakh as compensation.

Eyewitnesses say the sanghatana, a forum for Usgaon's villagers, mainly adivasis, was adamant, with Pandit saying the tankers would have to enter the taluka ``over his dead body''. A VTOA spokesperson said the amount being demanded is too much.

The VTOA drew a blank with the tehsildar, the sub-divisional officer and the Virar police buttheir pleas have been ignored till date. The association also approached local MLA Hitendra Thakur on Saturday but drew a blank there as well. Thakur, who also met them today, says he is reluctant to intervene as the issue is being politicised, a VTOA spokesperson told Express Newsline. ``I refuse to be drawn into the politics of water in Usgaon,'' Thakur is reported to have said, deliberately mentioning the village where Pandit's sanghatana is headquartered.

Says VTOA President Kamlakar Mankar: ``We can understand the villagers' feelings and are prepared to compensate. But Rs 8 lakh is too much. Moreover, Pandit is simply using the accident to score a point by politicising the issue. We resent that,'' he adds. ``Moreover, the water we draw from Usgaon is not used by the villagers there. It is excess,'' he points out.

Tanker owners, whose earnings have plummeted since the blockade was enforced, are now scouring the landscape and drawing water from the many small wells in the taluka. But that doesnot suffice for the populace.

Meanwhile, the driver, Anwar, is recuperating from the thrashing. He told Express Newsline from hospital that the angry villagers who converged at the accident site kept beating him even after he fell unconscious at the wheel.

He said about 100 of them damaged windscreens, wrenched out cassette players and slashed the tyres of vehicles lined up at various places on the road. Even the police failed to appease them.