Jaipur : The top officials of the Water Supply Department are instructing the Water Supply Engineers to disconnect the domestic connections and register a case if the bills of thousands of rupees are not paid. But it is also surprising that the amount of the outstanding water bills is more than 100 crores. 60 percent of the defaulters of this amount are not domestic consumers but consumers with commercial and industrial connections. But the department is showing leniency towards these big defaulters. Along with this, it is also on the back foot in the matter of recovery of dues and disconnecting connections. At the same time, the action of the department seems to be limited only to the drinking water consumers with outstanding amount of a few thousand rupees.
Distance from amnesty scheme too
According to the engineers of the department, the big defaulters do not want to pay the water bill. The department also runs an amnesty scheme for recovery from such defaulters but these defaulters keep away from it. Using their influence, they keep consuming water without paying. Whether the outstanding bill is of domestic connection or any other category, we take action to disconnect the connection by giving notice if the bill is not paid. It is also true that along with domestic, commercial and industrial water connections have bills of a large amount pending. We have started preparing the list of big defaulters in both the circles and will soon start the process of recovery of this amount.
Amitabh Sharma, Additional Chief Engineer, Jaipur II
Pratap Nagar 8,34,752
Shastri Nagar 5,91,528
Ramgarh More 4,33,247
Vishwakarma 3,60,438
Sodala 3,34,280
Sansar 3,61,800Chandra Road
Amer Road 2,27,098
(Amount of outstanding bill in lakhs)
Army is arriving to cut the connection
On the other hand, if we talk about domestic consumers, if a consumer owes Rs. 10,000 or more on water bills, the department is taking immediate action. An army of engineers is reaching there to disconnect the connection. The department is also charging interest and penalty on such consumers for not paying the outstanding bills.
No one pays attention to these elephants
When the generosity of the department towards big defaulters was investigated, a different picture of the outstanding recovery system came to the fore. There are thousands of commercial and industrial consumers who have not paid their bills for many years. They have outstanding water bills of Rs 5 lakh or more. Neither any notice is given to these big defaulters for recovery nor is the department taking any action to disconnect the connection.
