The Nagpur Environmental Services Limited (NESL), a company formed by Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) to administer its water supply, plans to launch a massive drive against water tax defaulters soon. The company has promised to snap defaulting commercial and residential connections, including those in government offices.
NESL executive director Shashikant Hastak said that as per the proposed annual budget by NMC standing panel head Sandeep Joshi, NESL has been given a recovery target of Rs 140cr for 2011-12. Along with regular bill recovery, NESL has to recover almost Rs 50 crore from over 15,000 defaulters metered consumers who have pending arrears since April 1, 2009. These defaulters have already been sent notices, he said.
Hastak said, "NESL has already started the drive against residential and commercial consumers. From next month, we will start checking the meters of bulk consumers. If they have not installed new ones, the NMC can initiate action against them too," he added.
"We have already appealed to over 1.48 lakh metered water consumers, including over 90,000 still receiving average water bills due to faulty water meters or other reasons, to replace their meters with new ones. There are over 15,000 bulk consumers who are also receiving average bills. The civic body has started the process of replacing their meters so it can charge them on actual use," he said.
Consumers, especially from Dharampeth zone area, where NMC's pilot project of providing 24X7 water supply has been implemented and who have received water bills of more than 50 units a month, and also those people who have already paid bills even after receiving higher bills, will not be considered for any legal action. NMC officials will personally visit homes to conduct checks about increased bills in the next few days in Dharampeth zone, he said.
In case of defaulters, all those who have failed to reply to notices and not paid the concessional tax of 50% of the pending amount, will now face disconnection, Hastak said. He said those who paid bills by cheque but the cheque bounced would have to submit Rs 1,000 as fine at the zonal offices or at the water tax department headquarters behind Dik Hospital in Dharampeth.
Meanwhile, this year too, the civic body has seized hundreds of illegal water pumps in the last two months. However, surprisingly, they did not book even a single person for flouting rules that are meant to avoid artificial shortage in many localities. The raiding parties also did not disconnect water supply of such erring consumers either.
Since NMC set up special squads in 1997 to tackle the problem, no concrete action has been taken except for seizure of pumps illegally drawing water. The NMC squads have seized over 5,000 illegal pumps over the years but not prosecuted any guilty party.
NESL executive director Shashikant Hastak said that as per the proposed annual budget by NMC standing panel head Sandeep Joshi, NESL has been given a recovery target of Rs 140cr for 2011-12. Along with regular bill recovery, NESL has to recover almost Rs 50 crore from over 15,000 defaulters metered consumers who have pending arrears since April 1, 2009. These defaulters have already been sent notices, he said.
Hastak said, "NESL has already started the drive against residential and commercial consumers. From next month, we will start checking the meters of bulk consumers. If they have not installed new ones, the NMC can initiate action against them too," he added.
"We have already appealed to over 1.48 lakh metered water consumers, including over 90,000 still receiving average water bills due to faulty water meters or other reasons, to replace their meters with new ones. There are over 15,000 bulk consumers who are also receiving average bills. The civic body has started the process of replacing their meters so it can charge them on actual use," he said.
Consumers, especially from Dharampeth zone area, where NMC's pilot project of providing 24X7 water supply has been implemented and who have received water bills of more than 50 units a month, and also those people who have already paid bills even after receiving higher bills, will not be considered for any legal action. NMC officials will personally visit homes to conduct checks about increased bills in the next few days in Dharampeth zone, he said.
In case of defaulters, all those who have failed to reply to notices and not paid the concessional tax of 50% of the pending amount, will now face disconnection, Hastak said. He said those who paid bills by cheque but the cheque bounced would have to submit Rs 1,000 as fine at the zonal offices or at the water tax department headquarters behind Dik Hospital in Dharampeth.
Meanwhile, this year too, the civic body has seized hundreds of illegal water pumps in the last two months. However, surprisingly, they did not book even a single person for flouting rules that are meant to avoid artificial shortage in many localities. The raiding parties also did not disconnect water supply of such erring consumers either.
Since NMC set up special squads in 1997 to tackle the problem, no concrete action has been taken except for seizure of pumps illegally drawing water. The NMC squads have seized over 5,000 illegal pumps over the years but not prosecuted any guilty party.
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