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Ludhiana MC, LIT turn away payments of water-sewer dues amid confusion over jurisdiction
LIT scheme areas were transferred to Ludhiana MC in January last year for maintenance of water-sewer lines; residents, however, claim that neither department is accepting water-sewer dues
In a bizarre incident, the municipal corporation (MC) and Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT) were found refusing to accept water-sewer dues from willing residents of Shaheed Bhagat Singh (SBS) Nagar—instead passing the buck on to the other department collect the user charges.
As a result, residents are being forced to make repeated visits to both offices.
As per information, the LIT scheme areas including SBS Nagar, Maharishi Valmiki Nagar, Sant Ishar Singh Nagar and Rajguru Nagar were transferred to the MC in January last year for maintenance of water-sewer lines.
Residents, however, maintained that neither department is accepting the dues. There are around 3,900 water-sewer connections in the areas that now come under the MC.
One of the residents of SBS Nagar, Arvind Sharma, 62, said he had applied for a no-objection certificate at the MC and when he went to submit the water-sewer charges on Wednesday, the officials turned him to the LIT office, who in turn asked him to make the payment at the MC office..
Voicing his displeasure at the harassment, Sharma said, “I am a senior citizen with medical problems and it is very difficult for people like me to make rounds of government offices. The public is facing a lot of harassment due to lack of coordination between both the departments and senior officials should take note of the issue and resolve the same as soon as possible.”
Another SBS Nagar resident Balraj Chopra said, “The departments have been tightening the noose around defaulters for recovery of tax and now when the public is ready, they are not accepting the dues, which is surprising. This will further create problems for the residents if the payments of dues get delayed as no one will pay heed to this problem at that time.”
Speaking on the issue, LIT superintending engineer (SE) Buta Ram said the water-sewer maintenance in the LIT scheme areas has been transferred to MC and the civic body has to collect the water sewer charges.
He added that the MC is in the middle of collecting records from the LIT officeand that might be the reason behind them not accepting the dues.
MC additional commissioner, Aaditya Dachalwal, meanwhile, said he has received no complaint regarding the same, but offered assurance that he would look into the matter so that a final decision can be made on payment collection.
