Govt grilled over faulty water bills

PORVORIM: Public works department (PWD) minister Ramkrishna Dhavalikar alias Sudin came under attack from opposition MLAs during ‘question hour' on Tuesday over faulty water billing with the common complaint being exorbitant water bills.
Dhavalikar said PWD received 237 complaints about faulty meters which is 0.37 % of the total meters installed, and it does not mean all meters are faulty.The PWD has studied why wrong bills were issued, and action has been taken against guilty meter readers, Dhavalikar told the House. He also assured that wrong bills will be rectified. The meter testing is done at every stage, he added.
But, opposition members were not impressed as they pointed out that high water bills, most of the time are double of what they paid until new meters were installed.
Fatorda's member of the legislative assembly (MLA) Vijai Sardesai, who tabled the question, said many consumers in South Goa are affected due to faulty billing after new meters under the JICA-funded project, were installed. Till date, 93,459 meters have been procured and 70,259 meters have been installed in South Goa, said the PWD minister in his reply.
Accusing the government of harassing people of Salcete by installing faulty meters, the Fatorda MLA asked "why are the consumers made to pay 150 as the testing fee when the fault lies with PWD".
"Why should consumers pay?" he asked, demanding that the testing fee be done away with.
He also criticized the PWD minister over the levy of 2% of delayed payment charges per month, and demanded that the rate of delayed payment charges be reduced.
But, the PWD minister justified the 2% delay payment charges as means of making people pay on time, as also recover arrears. He said the decision was taken after a lot of deliberation.
Margao MLA Digambar Kamat demanded that the testing fee should be waived off, and for two years, after new meters are installed, no testing fee should be charged. He also suggested that in cases where consumers have received high bills, the PWD could examine the water intake capacity of the affected consumer, check if variation in the old and new bill, and issue a fresh bill.
Reacting to the statement of the Fatorda MLA, chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar, earlier said that the government's schemes are implemented across the state, and insisted that constituencies represented by opposition MLAs are not discriminated against, as was made out by the Fatorda MLA.