India, April 8 -- New Delhi

The Delhi government has extended till August 15 the scheme to regularise illegal water connections, after receiving only around 2,500 applications until March 31, senior officials aware of the matter said.

A senior government official, requesting not to be named, said the scheme has received very poor response from public and people have been largely reluctant to come forward despite reducing the penalty to a token amount of Rs.1,000.

"Fewer than 2,500 people have applied under the scheme for regularisation of their connections. It is negligible amount. We will study various factors which are leading to such poor response. There may be issues pertaining to ownership of the house or old bills. We will try to...