Urban News

  • Increase font size
  • Default font size
  • Decrease font size
General Administration

Bills not paid, MC disconnects 37 water meters

Tuesday, 16 April 2013 08:04 administrator
Print PDF

The Indian Express                 16.04.2013

Bills not paid, MC disconnects 37 water meters

Tightening its noose around the city residents defaulting on payment of water bills, the Municipal Corporation disconnected 37 water meters on Monday. Water bills amounting to around Rs 13 crore have not been cleared by government institutions as well as private individuals.

Five teams of the civic body disconnected the water meters in different areas, including Sectors 18, 37, 32, Industrial Area and Manimajra. The MC teams remove the water meters of the defaulters and seal the connection. The entire process is photographed for the sake of proof.

The drive, which will continue till the MC recovers the pending bills, was launched on Friday, and has already started producing the desired result. "Meters of 15 people were disconnected on Friday and 37 today. Now people have started paying the pending bills. A recovery of around Rs 32 lakh has been made since strict action was started. We hope to recover Rs 4-5 crore through the drive," said Superintending Engineer (Public Health) R C Diwan.

He added that in case a person got the connection re-connected, then a criminal case would be registered against the defaulter. Re-connection without permission would be considered theft of water.

On Monday, city residents thronged the MC office, seeking permission to pay the bills in instalments. The Superintending Engineer can allow the pending amount to be paid in four instalments. However, in case the meter has been disconnected then water supply would be restored only after the full amount has been paid. A re-connection fee of Rs 100 also needs to be paid.

However, while the MC is targeting the private individuals, it is still going easy on the government organisations that have high amounts pending. Among the government departments, the Horticulture Department is yet to pay an amount of Rs 1.5 crore. The amount has been pending for several years. The Punjab Civil Secretariat has a pending amount of Rs 13 lakh while the police department is to pay Rs 10 lakh.

MC officials say that for the government departments, it is an internal transaction as money has to be shifted from the accounts of one department to the other.

Amloh MLA allowed to pay in 3 instalments

Among those who visited the MC office to seek permission to settle bills in instalments was Amloh MLA Randeep Singh Nabha. He has an amount of a little over Rs 3 lakh pending as water bill. He was given permission to pay the bill in three instalments. Officials say when the MC team went to JW Marriot to disconnect water supply, the management agreed to pay the bill and the pending amount was recovered. The dues of Raj Bhawan were also deposited.

 

Water wastage: On first day of drive, 45 defaulters challaned

Tuesday, 16 April 2013 07:34 administrator
Print PDF

The Indian Express                 16.04.2013

Water wastage: On first day of drive, 45 defaulters challaned

Water

The Municipal Corporation challaned 45 people for water wastage on the first day of the drive on Monday. Fine of Rs 2,000 each was imposed on the defaulters.

The civic body holds an annual drive from April 15 to June 30 in order to check wastage of water.

As many as 14 teams of the Municipal Corporation, headed by an SDO, visited different sectors between 6.30 am and 8.30 am. The residents who were found watering their lawns or washing cars and courtyards, using hosepipes, were fined.

The maximum defaulters were found in the cluster comprising sectors 17, 18, 19 and 20. A total of 10 people were challaned. Seven challans were issued in the cluster comprising sectors 21, 22, 34 and 35. In some areas the teams found no defaulters.

Earlier, the Municipal Corporation used to issue notices to the residents for the first violation. Thereafter, a fine of Rs 500 was imposed. Since last year, the civic body instead of issuing notices has been handing over challans to the defaulters. The amount has also been increased to Rs 2,000. The defaulters can either pay on the spot, or the fine is added to the water bills.

During summers the demand for water increases, but the amount available remains the same. In order to ensure that the residents on the upper storeys receive adequate supply of water, use of water in the morning hours for irrigation purposes or for washing cars is prohibited.

Chandigarh receives 87 million gallons daily (mgd) of water. During peak summers, the demand increases to 116 mgd.

 

Civic body puts its act together after the storm

Monday, 15 April 2013 11:30 administrator
Print PDF

The Times of India                    15.04.2013

Civic body puts its act together after the storm

RAIPUR: RMC displayed quick action and resolved multiple problems by sending different teams to affected spots following the sudden storm that had hit the capital and other parts of the state on Saturday night.

While the citizens struggled with chaos amid storm, power cut, hailstorm and traffic jam, the management of the capital was badly affected. Hoardings and poles had fallen on roads and trees got uprooted. Incidents of fire were reported at 12 places in the capital which were brought under control by midnight. RMC was swift in the clean-up activity when more than 150 hoardings and posters posed hurdles for vehicles to move on the roads across the city. Kishan agrawal of Shankar Nagar area said that he had to wait for at least two and half hours due to an uprooted tree in the middle of the road. "But with the help of RMC workers and other citizens the work finished soon. Otherwise, it could have taken
whole night."

Another resident of Rawabhata, Suyash Choudhry said, "There was no power in the city for three hours and I thought it is going to be a dark night. Thanks to RMC's electricians, who were seen in many parts of the city repairing the lines, the power resumed at around 1am and we could sleep peacefully."

A cleaning drive continued late till Sunday. Corporation workers struggled with a few large trees which took the entire night to be cleared.

In another development, Raipur Municipal Corporation (RMC) in the previous financial year has collected revenue of Rs 61 crore, up by more than Rs 9 crore revenue collected in previous fiscal.

RMC commissioner, Taran Prakash Sinha said that it was with efficiency and proper strategy that the financial year's revenue collection went up. He also announced felicitation of revenue officer Arun Dubey and few other zonal revenue workers and officers.
Last Updated on Monday, 15 April 2013 11:32
 
More Articles...


Page 518 of 686