The Municipal Corporation (MC) has failed to recover water bills worth Rs 15 crore in the past two decades - from not just local residents but also from two of its own departments and government officers, the 2016-17 MC audit report has pointed out.
The report, submitted on February 7, has advised the authorities to fix responsibility on the defaulting officer(s)/official(s). Water meters for which bills were being claimed on an average basis should also be replaced immediately, it said.
As per records most of the defaulters were from colonies. Bapu Dham owed Rs 42 lakh, Mauli Jagran had Rs 86 lakh pending in water bills, Ram Darbar had an outstanding sum of Rs 1.66 crore, Attawa owed Rs 7.2 lakh, Dadumajra colony had Rs 87 lakh pending, Dadumajra village had not paid Rs 17 lakh and Palsora owed Rs 62 lakh.
There were dues worth Rs 32 lakh pending in the Sector-25 colony, while Rs 8 lakh each was owed in Badheri and Dhanas villages. Dues amounting to Rs 70 lakh were pending against defaulters in Maloya.
Suresh Gill, executive engineer admitted that these payments were pending for the past several years and even after repeated reminders, the defaulters have not paid up. “Now I have asked the concerned sub divisional engineers to prepare a detailed report, so that we can start a drive to disconnect the connections,” he said.
Widening gap between expenditure, revenue
In 2012-13, MCs expenditure amounted to Rs 114 crore, and revenues totalled Rs 64 crore. Similarly in 2013-14, the revenue was only Rs 65 crore even as the expenditure increased to Rs 126 crore.
In 2014-15, the civic body’s collection of revenues dropped to Rs 62 crore when the expenditure on the maintenance of water supply was Rs 127 crore. In 2015-16, the expenditure increased to Rs 132 crore while revenue collection remained only Rs 65 crore.
{{/usCountry}}In 2014-15, the civic body’s collection of revenues dropped to Rs 62 crore when the expenditure on the maintenance of water supply was Rs 127 crore. In 2015-16, the expenditure increased to Rs 132 crore while revenue collection remained only Rs 65 crore.
{{/usCountry}}In 2016-17, the expenditure increased to Rs 133 crore, while revenue collection was Rs 68 crore, the gap being Rs 65 crore.