The Hindu 22.03.2011
Consumer organisation demands refund of water connection deposit
Coimbatore Consumer Cause has written to the Assistant Director of Town
Panchayat seeking refund of deposit for a person who changed the water
connection from commercial to domestic.
In a release, he said N.R. Rajan, a resident of
Sirumugai, while constructing his house applied for water connection
under ‘commercial tariff’ category by paying Rs. 8,000 as deposit. The
Sirumugai Town Panchayat charged him Rs. 100 as monthly user charges.
After the completion of the house, the local body
assessed his house for property tax on June 7, 2008. Soon thereafter it
also converted the nature of water connection from commercial to
domestic and reduced the monthly user charges from Rs. 100 to Rs. 50.
But when Mr. Rajan requested for refund of Rs. 4,000
from the Rs. 8,000 deposited, citing the change in the nature of
connection, the town panchayat administration flatly refused to do so.
His complaint remained unsettled since July 29, 2008.
After his two reminders, the town panchayat council passed a resolution
(No. 138) saying the deposit collected would not be refunded even after
conversion from one category to another.
Consumer Cause’s Secretary K. Kathirmathiyon said that
the stand of the civic body was surprising given the fact that it had
agreed to reduce the monthly user charges. He said that many local
bodies within the district had refunded the deposit collected when the
water connection was changed from one category to another.
He pointed out that even the Sirumugai Town Panchayat
had returned a part of the deposit money in similar situations in the
past.
The local body’s stand was against the principle of
natural justice, illegal and against rules as well. Not refunding
deposit was a deficiency in service, he said and added that the
complainant, Mr. Rajan, was entitled to interest with suitable damages.
