Pending: Water bills worth Rs 12 cr

Repeated reminders and notices seem to have no affect on the defaulters as the bills have been pending for years without much success in recovering these. Among the worst defaulters in the government departments is the horticulture wing.

Various divisions of the horticulture wing have bills amounting to more than Rs 2 crore pending. Horticulture Division 1 has bill amounting to Rs 64.95 lakh pending while Horticulture Division,Shanti Kunj,in Sector 16 is defaulting on payment of Rs 61.54 lakh.

Recently all the gardens and greenbelts that were under the UT Administration were transferred to the civic body. Along with this the pending bills of these departments have also been transferred.

For irrigation of Leisure Valley,bills amounting to Rs 24.03 lakh are pending,while that for irrigating greenbelt in Sector 33,Rs 10 lakh are pending. The other offices including SDO’s office in Sector 23 as well as the DC office in Sector 17 are yet to clear their pending bills.

The officials of the civic body had earlier raised the issue that some of the defaulters had shifted from the locations where they were being billed. Due to this recovery was difficult. Water Supply and Sewerage Disposal Committee Chairman Jatinder Bhatia said that the issue had earlier been taken up in the House Meet.

Thereafter a substantial amount was recovered. Officials would be asked to bring action taken report to the House.

An amount of Rs 7 crore is pending against the colonies and villages. Among the highest defaulters are the residents of Mauli Jagran where bills amounting to around Rs 1.75 crore are pending.

The other defaulters include Indira Colony,Palsora,Dadumajra,Dhanas,Ramdarbar,etc. At many of these colonies and villages,flat rate is charged that amounts to Rs 100 a month. However,even this amount has not been paid.

Mauli Jagran area Councillor Anil Dubey said,“Over the past few years metered connections have been provided in the colony. Wherever the previous bills are pending,I have requested the MC to take the bill in installments from the residents as some of them are very poor and would not be able to pay the whole bill.”

This year the civic body earned Rs 51.65 crore from water bills and sewerage cess.