Civic body reduces water cut to a mere 4%

MUMBAI: Succumbing to demands from political representatives in the BMC, the civic body has decided to supply an additional 100 million litres of water a day (mld). Following a discussion on the situation of water supply in the standing committee on Wednesday, the administration announced that the city will now receive 3,264 mld. In other words, the water cut will be brought down to a mere 4%.

Corporators in the standing committee meeting asked the administration why no move had been made to lift the water cut completely, despite the water stock in the lakes having reached a `comfortable' position. Cashing in on the upcoming festivals like Eid and Ganpati, corporators demanded a complete rollback of the water cut.

"Currently, we supply 3,164 mld to the city. We are now in a position to supply 100 mld more. After a while, we will review the situation and see when to roll the water cut back completely,'' said additional municipal commissioner Anil Diggikar.

Meanwhile, officials said that Upper Vaitarna was still 36% short of its entire quota, Bhatsa, at least 18% below the mark. "There is still a shortfall of about 52 days in the supply. Although Vihar and Tulsi have started overflowing, they account for only seven and four days of supply to the city respectively. We cannot take a hurried decision as we have to sail through the entire year after the monsoon ends,'' Diggikar said.

Congress corporator Sameer Desai said that the civic body had burdened the city for several months and everyone had co-operated because the issue was genuine. "But now, the water stock is enough and people should be supplied more water. In fact, the cut should be taken into account and water bills should be reduced accordingly,'' he said. "There is no reason why the cut shouldn't be rolled back. Bhatsa and Upper Vaitarna were not full even in 2005 or 2006, so why is that being held as a yardstick now?'' he asked.

Shiv Sena leader Sunil Prabhu, without taking a particular stand on the issue of a complete roll back (Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray had earlier this month told the BMC administration not to roll back the cut until all the lakes were full). "If the cut is lifted, the civic body should ensure that the transportation losses, especially due to leakages are reduced considerably in the coming year,'' said Prabhu.

IMPORTANT BOX ON AMNESTY SCHEME

If you pay your outstanding water bills within two months, the BMC will waive off the two per cent additional charges you would have otherwise had to pay with your outstanding bills. The amnesty scheme proposed by the BMC will begin on October 1.

The BMC levies an additional two percent charge on any outstanding bill for the months following the delay in paying the water bills. The charge is levied when the bill is not paid within the due date. According to civic officials, the BMC is waiting to receive an outstanding amount of Rs 978 crore as water bills. Of that, Rs 294 crore amounts to the additional charges.

"Usually, slums and government agencies try to evade the additional charges. In the process, the bills are also not paid. In order to avoid the problem, we have decided to waive off the pending additional charges if the agencies and citizens pay their water bills within the next two months,'' said an official from the hydraulic department.