Indian Express 15.04.2010
Water bills fail to reach half of Navi Mumbai consumers
Stuti Shukla Tags : consumers, water bill Posted: Thursday , Apr 15, 2010 at 0451 hrs
Mumbai: Nearly half the legal consumers of water in Navi Mumbai did not receive the water bill for February and March. The 52,000 consumers who were not sent bills stay in CIDCO-built buildings, including CIDCO condominiums, which largely house those from the economically weaker sections.Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation officials said a technical glitch caused the problem. Sanjay Desai, chief executive engineer of NMMC’s water supply department, said there was no political pressure and the delay was due to software problems. “We recently installed water meters in the CIDCO buildings that were earlier being supplied water and charged directly. The water rates were revised three days before the election code of conduct that came into effect on February 27. Because of this we could not update our software and could not generate the bills,” said Desai. Ironically, the other 66,000 consumers were sent bills with the revised rates. The NMMC standing committee had slashed water rates for domestic users, just two months before the elections, from Rs 4.75 per 1000 litres upto a total monthly consumption of 25,000 liters to just Rs .50 for water consumption upto 30,000 litres per month. The charges for commercial users remain the same at Rs 30 per 1000 litre till consumption of 25,000 litres.
The area’s daily demand of 315 million litres of water is met by civic-owned Morbe Dam and CIDCO-owned Hetavne Dam and MIDC’s Barvi Dam. The annual revenue generated from water bills is Rs 54 crore.
