Chandigarh, Nov. 28 -- Thirty-two years after his two houses collapsed due to leakage of water from a pipeline installed by the public health department, the Punjab and Haryana high court upheld a lower court's decision to award Rs.2 lakh compensation to a Sonepat resident. "The negligence of the defendants is based on tangible evidence such as site plan, witness statements, and the admitted failure of authorities to act on repeated complaints. Both courts found the chain of causation between leakage and structural deterioration duly established," the bench of justice Deepak Gupta observed while dismissing an appeal filed against lower court orders in 2001 by the Haryana government. As per the case, Balbir Singh had two houses in Bichpari village in Gohana area of Sonepat. Under a water supply scheme in the village, the public health department laid PVC pipelines in the streets, including the street adjoining the Singh's houses. The pipes soon developed leakage and despite repeated oral complaints to local authorities, no remedial action was taken. Owing to persistent leakage, the water allegedly entered the underground foundation through sub-soil channels, weakening the structure and causing initial cracks in the walls and as prompt corrective measures were not taken, the walls of the houses collapsed in June 1993. Balbir had filed a suit for compensation before the local court demanding Rs.2 lakh compensation. The trial court in August 1999 decreed in his favour, a decision challenged before appellate court by the local authorities. But the court affirmed the findings of negligence and liability and told the government to pay the decided amount with interest of 12 per cent per annum. It was pursuant to this, the government had moved HC arguing that no leakage occurred in the water pipelines installed by the public health department. It was further claimed that no complaint was ever received from Singh or any villager. The petition remained pending since then and now while disposing of the matter the HC said that lower courts have recorded a categorical finding that the collapse of houses was directly attributable to negligence on the part of the authorities in repairing the leaking water supply pipelines....