Chandigarh MC seeks more teeth to tackle faulty water meters

Around 32,000 water meters in Chandigarh have been lying defective for the past five years due to which consumers have been getting a flat bill irrespective of their water consumption

Facing poor response from residents in replacing their faulty water meters on their own, the Chandigarh municipal corporation has written to the UT administration to allow it to replace the meters and recover the cost from residents through amendments in the Chandigarh Water Supply Byelaws, 2011.

At present, as per provisions of the byelaws, as amended from time to time, it is responsibility of consumers to get defective/lost/stolen water meters replaced within one month from the date of issue of water charges bill of defective meter. (HT Photo)

Around 32,000 water meters in Chandigarh have been lying defective for the past five years due to which consumers have been getting a flat bill irrespective of their water consumption. The water bills are being raised on an average reading basis as per the provisions of Chandigarh Water Supply Byelaws. Due to average billing, there is a lot of wastage of drinking water and water revenue is not being realised on actual consumption basis.

At present, as per provisions of the byelaws, as amended from time to time, it is responsibility of consumers to get defective/lost/stolen water meters replaced within one month from the date of issue of water charges bill of defective meter.

After city councillors raised concerns over faulty meters and discrepancies in water bills during the General House meeting on Tuesday, municipal commissioner Anindita Mitra said, “We have already written to the UT administration to amend the byelaws that can give teeth to MC to replace the water meters and recover one-time charge from the consumers’ water bills. Earlier, the city had around 40,000 faulty water meters and after issuing repeated notices to consumers, 8,000 of them have replaced the meters in the past few months. MC is equipped to replace the meters so that our revenue is not affected.”