Deccan Herald 17.06.2013
KR Puram residents reluctant to avail new water connections
The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage
Board (BWSSB) seems to be trying all kinds of tactics to ensure that
consumers in KR Puram Assembly constituency regularise their water
connections.
Ever since the BWSSB commissioned its
additional water supply to the City through Cauvery IV stage II phase
project, it is struggling to convince citizens to avail new water
connections.
At KR Puram, it is a whole new ball game for the
Board as the residents are reluctant to obtain new connections as they
have got used to free supply. According to BWSSB records, of the 80,000
household connections laid, only 6,000 consumers have actually obtained a
proper water connection.
Initially, when the project was
launched in October 2012, the then MLA had organised a special function
to receive Cauvery water to the water-starved constituency. After the
commissioning of the project, water was supplied free of cost to the
residents for over four months by BWSSB. When the Board started to incur
loss on the water supply, it limited the supply to these areas. The
Board also discontinued supply through water tankers to the households
to encourage them to regularise their connections.
But, the
strategy did not help the Board. Three corporators visited BWSSB head
office recently to persuade the engineer-in-chief to continue water
supply through tankers. Former corporator of A Narayanapura ward, S S
Prasad, who met the Board’s engineer-in-chief, said that BWSSB was not
following a proper system in providing new water connections and that is
the reason why residents were reluctant to regularise their
connections. “The private contractors’ lobby is thriving, looting poor
people in the name of providing new water connections. These contractors
are demanding huge amounts for the small work of laying the pipelines.
This is exactly why people are reluctant to go in for new connections,”
Prasad added.
However, T Venkataraju, engineer-in-chief, BWSSB,
said that to solve the residents’ problems, they would be issuing
‘demand note’ (forms) from June 20, which will include Greater Bangalore
Water and Sanitation Project (GBWASP) cost, meter cost, metering fixing
charges and pro-rata charges. “We will engage BWSSB contractors to
enable the water connections for the residents in KR Puram. The Board
employees will go door-to-door and issue demand notes, which will have
two separate forms. Once the forms are filled and necessary payments
made, water connections will be enabled to the households immediately,”
he said.
Venkataraju said that the Board will help the residents
in regularising their connections, but paying for the connections is
inevitable.
