The Statesman 02.05.2013
Residents oppose decision to install water meters
Corporation (KMC) is facing stiff opposition to its decision to install
water meters in north Kolkata from residents in the area and a section
of Trinamul Congress leaders, who recall chief minister Miss Mamata
Banerjee’s assurance that no water tax would ever be imposed; those
opposing the move feel it is a precursor to levying water charge at a
later point.
The civic body’s budget for the year had envisaged
installing water meters in wards 1-6 in north Kolkata to assess water
loss, and the Mayor, Mr Sovan Chatterjee, had urged people to cooperate
with KMC for the same in his Budget speech.
Following
discussions between officials of Kolkata Environment Improvement Project
(KEIP) and KMC’s water supply department, a decision was taken to
install water meters in institutional, commercial and privately-owned
buildings to determine the use of drinking water.
The KMC does
not have any data on the daily loss of filtered drinking water in the
city; rough estimates peg this loss at around 20 million gallons daily.
It
is learnt that Trinamul Congress leaders are opposing the move as party
chief Miss Banerjee had repeatedly said that no water tax would be
imposed.
Residents are also opposing the move as they feel the
installation of water meters on an experimental basis is a precursor to
levying water charge.
The Asian Development Bank has been
pressuring KMC to levy water charges to repay its loan for quite some
time. A fresh loan from the bank is due, and it has urged the KMC to
make its revenue collection system transparent and impose water tax.
It
had suggested that water meters be installed in two wards in Behala and
drinking water be supplied for 24 hours to measure usage and losses.
However, the KMC had not accepted the proposal.
This isn’t the
first instance of the Trinamul Congress opposing the civic body’s tax
collection drive ~ though a new method of assessing property tax called
the unit area assessment in KMC parlance has been ready, it could not be
implemented following objection from the party.
Meanwhile,
electricity charges and the price of items required to purify water have
gone up and civic officials feel that imposition of water tax is must
if the production and distribution network is to be maintained.
It
may be recalled that the former mayor, Mr Prasanta Chatterjee, had
mooted the imposition of water tax; however, it could not be implemented
owing to opposition from the Kolkata district committee of the CPI-M.
Civic
officials are up in at at the latest opposition. “The situation is
really tragic…water tax can be imposed without causing any major pain
to property owners and it will help the civic authorities enormously. A
majority of property owners are ready to pay the tax if it is not too
high as well,” said a senior official.
