5,000 default in payment of ₹3.50 crore water, sewerage bills in Karnal

Over 5,000 owners of commercial and residential buildings in Karnal did not pay water supply and sewerage bills amounting to ₹3.50 crore for the past few years, forcing HSVP to prepare a list of defaulters

Over 5,000 owners of commercial and residential buildings of Smart City Karnal did not pay their water supply and sewerage bills amounting to ₹3.50 crore for the past few years, forcing the Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) to prepare a list of defaulters.

The officials have prepared a list of the defaulting residents in Karnal who did not pay water supply and sewerage bills and notices are being issued to them for the immediate recovery of the dues. (Reuters File Photo/ Representational image)

The officials have prepared a list of the defaulting residents and notices are being issued to them for the immediate recovery of the dues.

As per the list prepared by the officials, there are around 16,000 valid connections of water and sewerage in around 15 sectors of Karnal city and the HSVP charges approximately ₹500 per month per household for a 200 sq metre plot for both drinking water and sewage management. But for the past couple of years, owners of 5,000 residential and commercial buildings did not pay their bills taking the pending amount to around ₹3.50 crore, said an official privy to the information.

The officials said that most of the defaulters are owners of big residential houses and commercial buildings. Even hundreds of community centres, dharamshalas and institutions are also among the defaulters.

Even several reminders were sent to them but the response was poor and now notices are being given to them and further action will be taken as per the law if they fail to clear their dues in a time-bound manner, said the officials.

They said that they have got instructions from the higher authorities for the recovery of the pending dues.

Executive engineer, HSVP, Karnal, Dharmbir said out of 16,000 consumers, 5,000 are among the list of defaulters as they did not clear their bills for the past two to three years. He said that the list of such consumers has been prepared and notices have already been sent to around 1,000 owners of such properties.

On what action will be taken if they fail to pay their bills even after the notices, he said “We are issuing final notices and if they fail to clear their dues, we will cut their supply of the drinking water as per the instruction from the higher authorities”.