Indian Express 09.03.2010
Will disconnect water supply: PCMC tells defaulters
Express News Service Tags : PCMC, corporation Posted: Tuesday , Mar 09, 2010 at 0344 hrs
Pune: The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) has decided to act tough and disconnect water supply to those who fail to pay up. The civic body’s decision comes after hundreds of citizens have failed to pay their water tax dues despite repeated reminders. The outstanding amount has touched Rs 30 crore.The civic body officials said that all ward offices of PCMC have been directed to undertake the drive in their respective jurisdiction and recover the dues. The PCMC pumps out 32 crore litres of water from the Pavana dam every day. Of this, 9.60 crore litres is lost in leakages.
When the PCMC got funds for various projects under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), the municipal corporation agreed to certain conditions, one of which was that the PCMC would recover the money spent on supplying water through water tax. So, the water supply department would become self sustained. This was followed by another decision to install water meters. PCMC has so far installed 93,000 water meters in the city at a cost of Rs 50 crore.
Even after installing the meters, the municipal corporation has not been able to recover water tax levied as per the meter count. Officials attribute this failure to a communication gap between water tax department, ward officers and the consumers. The municipal corpration has spent Rs 55 crore on water supply in the financial year 2009-10. But it has been able to recover only Rs 12 crore as water tax against a set target of Rs 45 crore. Due to the huge difference in the target and the actual amount recovered, Commissioner Asheesh Sharma directed the ward officers to initiate a drive and recover water tax dues.
PCMC officials said that all those who have not paid water tax on time would have to pay a fine failing which, their supply will be disconnected.
