The Hindu            09.11.2013

Siddaramaiah allows BWSSB to take a call on water tariff hike

Special Correspondent

‘Hike imminent as board needs revenue for taking up projects’

Be prepared to pay more for your daily Cauvery water supply. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday cleared the decks for an upward revision of water tariff by authorising the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) to take a decision on the hike at its next meeting.

Highly placed sources in the Urban Development (UD) Department told The Hindu that the file pertaining to the water board’s proposal on water tariff hike, which was with the Chief Minister, was sent back to the department on Friday with a note stating that the BWSSB could take a decision in this regard.

Sources said when the water tariff was revised in 2006, the government had directed the board to take a decision on hiking water charges as and when power charges were hiked. “However, the board did not take this direction seriously and had repeatedly sought the government’s permission to revise water charges. Although power tariff had been hiked several times, water charges had not been revised since 2006,” the sources said.

“The board, which met two days ago, is likely to meet again in the next 15 days to decide on the tariff hike. The hike is imminent now as the board requires more revenue for taking up new projects and operating and maintaining existing ones,” the sources said.

Meeting on supply

Meanwhile, the Chief Minister convened a meeting of city MLAs and MPs and officials from BWSSB, BBMP and BDA at his home office Krishna on Friday to discuss issues relating to water supply and sanitation in the city.

After the MLAs pointed out that staff shortage in BWSSB was affecting the citizens indirectly, the Chief Minister directed the BWSSB to recruit the required staff within six months, according to sources.

The Chief Minister directed the officials to check water wastage, especially the 48 per cent of water that goes unaccounted for. “If this wastage is checked, we will have additional water to meet the city’s requirement,” the Chief Minister said.

Manual scavenging

Taking serious note of reports regarding manual scavenging on the city’s outskirts, the Chief Minister directed the BWSSB to use machines to clean manholes and sanitary lines. There should be one jetting machine for every ward, he said.

According to sources, the MLAs pointed out that the board owed nearly Rs. 170 crore to Bescom towards power charges of borewells. Officials urged the Chief Minister to either get the amount waived or release additional grants to BWSSB to clear this.

The Chief Minister, who was informed about the drinking water crisis in the 110 villages that were added to the erstwhile BMP along with the seven city municipal councils and one town municipal council, assured the board that the Irrigation Department would allocate additional water from the Cauvery for drinking purposes.

He asked the officials to prepare a detailed project report at the earliest on water supply and under ground drainage system in these villages.

The Pioneer            08.11.2013

BMC Commissioner orders officials to disconnect water supply of tax defaulters

He instructed the officials to disconnect tap connections of the property tax defaulters, to impose tax on the remaining properties and to resolve the cases of false demand regarding water supply immediately.

The BMC Commissioner gave instructions to the officials concerned in a meeting held on Thursday at BMC office located at Kamla Park. While reviewing the works, Garhpale further inspected the BMC offices of different wards. During the inspection of BMC office of ward 24, he issued a show cause notice to the ward in-charge PP Tripathi on finding the bad condition of the office and the boundary walls of the ward office. Spot fine of Rs 50 was also imposed on Tripathi.

On the occasion, BMC Additional Commissioner GP Mali, Deputy Commissioners Pradeep Verma, Sriram Tiwari, Zonal official BB Tiwari and other officials were also present.

Notably, Garhpale inspected the ward offices of wards 20, 21, 22, 23 and 24.

On finding much absenteeism in the ward offices, Garhpale expressed his discontentment and cautioned the officials that stern actions would be taken against them who would remain irresponsible towards their duties.

He asked the officials to dissolve all the illegal tap connections and take stern action against such connections.

He also cautioned that if any illegal tap connection is found, a stern action would be taken against assistant engineer of water works department. He also asked the officials to take stern against property distortion and resolve the cases under audit objections, social security pensions and family support and public service guarantee.

He also instructed the officials to grant the duties to the employees properly, carry out tax collection of bulk connections, carry out door-to-door garbage collection and to make the sanitary and cleanliness drive even more appropriate.