A senior civic officer said the squad, which disconnects water and drainage supply, and the police which was escorting them had to return when a mob attacked them and prevented them from carrying their duty.

According to information, the societies, including Motinagar - 3, Kapleshwar, Chandranagar, Marutidham and Ushakiran, had applied for water connections around 1990 when the VMC gave service connections outside city limits. After the BJP came to power in 1995, it passed a proposal of not giving connections outside city limits as it was finding it difficult to even meet the requirements of the population within the city limits. The connections were unauthorised, Deputy Municipal Commissioner (General) I B Peerzada and Mayor Bharati Vyas said. They pointed out that thought the residents had paid development charges in the initial stages, they had not completed other formalities, including submitting files for individual connections and getting the flow test from the Corporation.

Significantly, BJP MLA Dilubhai Chudasama and, party councillors Pravin Patel and Vidya Rajput had made representations to Vyas on Monday not to disconnect the connections. However, Aloria had on Monday itself decided to severe the connections.

In a statement issued later in the day, Tarsali Village Panchayat sarpanch Jagdish Patel also admitted that the jeeps were damaged and that the squad was prevented from disconnecting the connections. Patel maintained that the connections were legal as the residents had paid developmental charges.

He urged that the case of the societies should be looked into as they had no alternative source for water. ``As the VMC discharges partially treated sewage from the Gajrawadi sewage treatment plant into open fields of Tarsali, the ground water had become polluted and hence bore wells could not be laid,'' he added.