The Hindu 03.12.2009
Corporation yet to come out with policy on sewer lines
Staff Correspondent
| KUIDFC had urged MCC to take a decision in this regard at the earliest |
‘There is confusion among residents of Pachchanady’
Mayor accused of misleading people
— Photo: R. Eswarraj 
Ready: The sewage treatment plant set up by the KUIDFC at Pachchanady in Mangalore.
MANGALORE: Some senior councillors of the Mangalore City Corporation have said that authorities of the civic body have failed to announce a policy on connecting sewer lines from houses to the newly laid sewerage network, especially in Pachchanady area.
This had led to confusion among residents of the area, they have said.
The Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation (KUIDFC) has set up a new sewage treatment plant (STP) at Pachchanady.
It has a capacity to treat 8.75 MLD (million litres a day) of sewage.
Meeting
In a meeting with councillors a few months ago, J.R. Lobo, Deputy Project Director of KUIDFC, Mangalore, had suggested that the city corporation come out with a policy on connecting sewer lines from houses to the sewerage network laid by the KUIDFC. This was aimed at testing the operation of the STP.
He had said that the policy should clarify who should connect the sewer lines from houses to the sewerage network (manholes) — house owners or the corporation. If the corporation workers were to connect the lines, what was the fee to be collected from the house owners.
Mr. Lobo had suggested that the MCC take a decision to this effect at the earliest so as to commence the operation of the STP at Pachchanady. Though the matter was included in the agenda, the city corporation council meeting on Monday failed to come out with a clear stand on the issue.
In spite of Mariyamma Thomas, senior member, urging the Mayor to announce a clear policy to this effect, the latter gave a vague reply. Ms. Thomas told The Hindu on Wednesday that if the MCC allowed people to connect the sewer lines from houses to manholes themselves, there were chances of the manholes getting damaged and roads being dug up haphazardly.
Instead, the MCC could collect a nominal fee from the house owners and hire a contractor to implement the task.
The contractor should also be entrusted with the task of asphalting the portion of roads that would be dug up, she said.
Harinath, Leader of the Opposition in the council, concurred with the views of Ms. Thomas.
Mayor M. Shankar Bhat had said that the MCC recently provided training to 130 plumbers on methods of connecting sewer lines to manholes.
People should approach such plumbers identified by the MCC and get the sewer lines connected at their own cost, he had said.
Refuting the Mayor’s statement, Mr. Harinath said that the corporation had not trained any plumbers. The Opposition members had no knowledge of it, he said, and alleged that the Mayor was misleading the people.
