Recovery of ₹33 crore from Panipat defaulters remains a challenge for health department

The Haryana public health and engineering departments was unable to recover around ₹33 crore from the defaulters of Panipat district

The Haryana public health and engineering departments was unable to recover around ₹33 crore from the defaulters of Panipat district.

According to information provided by the public health and engineering departments, of total 49,456 valid connection holders of Panipat city, 35,275 are defaulters and owe ₹29.28 crore for dirking water and ₹3.97 crore for sewerage maintenance. (Shutterstock)

As per information provided by the department in reply to an application filed under the Right to Information Act by Panipat-based activist Vaibhav, the PHED owes ₹33 crore from drinking water and sewerage bill defaulters of Panipat.

According to information provided by the public health and engineering departments, of total 49,456 valid connection holders of Panipat city, 35,275 are defaulters and owe ₹29.28 crore for dirking water and ₹3.97 crore for sewerage maintenance.

The activist said the department has claimed that there was not even a single illegal connection of drinking water in the city, but the reply revealed that 56 illegal and 155 legal water connections were disconnected in the past five years.

Around ₹4.44 core drinking water and sewage maintenance were due with only 249 defaulters of Samalkha sub-division in district.

PHED Panipat executive engineer Rajesh Kaushik said the notices are being served to the defaulters and the recovery was slowed down due to the Covid-19 pandemic.