The Times of India 05.08.2010
Water bill arrears leave police quarters parched
BANGALORE: Water crisis is haunting not only common man but men in uniform also. The ever-increasing water bill arrears has resulted in cut of supply to most police quarters across the city.
While the arrears at Mysore Road quarters stood at a whopping Rs 42 lakh, Shivajinagar quarters’ arrears stops at Rs 18 lakh.
Stories from other quarters at Thanisandra, Magadi Road and other places are no different. BWSSB cut water supply to these quarters at least 10 days ago.
On Wednesday, family members of police personnel living in Shivajinagar quarters staged a protest near the police commissioner’s office. Last week, a similar protest was staged by families residing in Mysore Road quarters.
MAINTENANCE TUSSLE
The trouble is with the existing system of maintenance the police quarters. Earlier, these quarters were maintained by the PWD department. However, no one is sure now as to who should maintain the quarters.
The government in 1987 decided to cut Rs 250 from the occupant cop’s salary. Since then, the water price has been revised many times, and at present, it costs Rs 400 per house.
ANY WAY OUT?
City police commissioner Shankar Bidari admitted about the supply cut problem. “As per rules, occupants of the quarters have to pay their electricity and water bills. Nobody thought about changing water tariff during this period. The money, which is deducted from their salary directly goes to BWSSB. Now, they have to pay up the arrears and there is no way out,” he said.
Earlier, there was a similar situation when the government decided to pay the arrears on compassionate grounds. However, CAG took an objection to this and directed the government to recover the money from occupants’ salary and benefits. “After this problem cropped up, we have formed welfare committees, which will look into these problems,” Bidari added.
