The Hindu 12.03.2013
Corporation’s bill does not hold water, quashed
The Kerala State Consumer Complaints Redressal
Commission has quashed a Rs. 83.55 lakh water bill served on a hospital
by the Thrissur City Corporation for the water it has not supplied.
Largest sum
This
is by the largest sum of money involved in such appeals. The commission
also ordered the corporation to pay a compensation of Rs. 5,000 — to be
paid to the legal benefit fund of the commission.
The
corporation had asked the Thrissur District Co-operative Hospital to
pay the bill which, according to the corporation, was the cumulative
charge for the water it had supplied since 1992. (In Thrissur city,
water supply has been carried out by the city corporation, except for a
short period during the 1990s.)
Since the water
supply to the hospital from half a dozen connections it had was erratic
and scanty in the early 1990s, the hospital had sunk wells on the
hospital compound and set up water tanks.
The water supply to one of the connections was disconnected in 1992.
And,
for more than 12 years, there had been no water supply at all by the
corporation to the hospital through the other connections. Still, the
corporation used to send water bills.
The cumulative
bill, served in 2010, amounted to Rs. 83.55 lakhs. Abdulla Sona, the
commission member, found that the corporation had committed ‘unfair
trade practice and deficiency in service’ and quashed the bill.
Consumer court quashes Rs.83.55 lakh water bill served on a hospital by Thrissur City Corporation.
