The Hindu 28.02.2011
MCC unable to recover water bill arrears
Officials hope the PPP model will improve maintenance
The Mangalore City Corporation's proposal to go for round-the-clock drinking water supply in select wards through public-private-partnership (PPP) on a pilot basis appears to have some justification considering the fact that its water bill collection stands at only 52.64 per cent.
A note circulated at the press conference of the outgoing Mayor Rajani Dugganna here on Friday said that the water bill demand at the end of January 2011 stood at Rs. 29.37 crore. Of this, the civic body has collected Rs. 15.46 crore. Hence the percentage of bill collection stands at 52.64 per cent, it said.
An official in the water supply section in the civic body told The Hindu that though its total water bill arrears stood at Rs. 13.91 crore. The corporation was not in a position to recover Rs. 4.14 crore. Hence in reality it could collect Rs. 9.77 crore.
Regarding Rs. 4.14 crore, the official said the council had passed a resolution to waive off Rs. 2.38 crore bill of Kannur Gram Panchayat and the State Government had decided to waive off Rs. 76 lakh bill of Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilisers Limited (MCF). Of the balance, Rs. 70 lakh bill pertained to those consumers whose water supply connections had been cut off for not paying the bill. The civic body was finding it difficult to recover this amount as owners of many such properties which had those connections had sold them. In addition, Rs. 30 lakh bill belonging to various government offices was in dispute.
A senior official in-charge of administration at the corporation admitted that there should be an “un-holy alliance” between bill collectors and some consumers. If not how could an amount to the tune of Rs. 70 lakh (part of Rs. 4.14 crore) from consumers remain? he asked.
The official admitted that introducing round-the-clock water supply was nothing but “partial privatisation” of water supply.
He said he was hopeful that this would put an end to such “unholy alliances' as the private party in-charge of water supply and bill collection would ensure proper revenue collection. It would put an end to unauthorised connections and uneven distribution of water supply.
The official hoped that the PPP model would help in proper maintenance of distribution system as water supplier would have to provide quality service for what consumers pay. Otherwise the distributors would be at the receiving end.
Thumbe vented dam is the main source of drinking water to the city.
According to the note, there were 71,949 water supply connections in the jurisdiction of the civic body at the end of March, 2010. Of them 66,033 were house connections.
