New bill to penalise those wasting drinking water

Offenders to get three years of imprisonment with a fine

 
The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage and Certain other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2009, tabled in the Legislative Assembly on Monday, seeks to enhance the penalties on various offenses under the BWSSB Act. Presently, the penalty amount is very meagre ranging from Rs 5 to Rs 500, and there is no provision to imprison an offender.

The Government has sought to hike the penalty amount on all types of offenses, including tampering of meter, connection to the Board sewer without  permission, execution of work by any person other than a licensed plumber and constructing a building without drains.

Besides, if a person fails to pay pro rata charges, he will be liable to pay 25 percent of the charges in addition to the other penalty.

The bill also seeks to empower the Board to insist house owners to adopt water conservation methods like rainwater harvesting and recycling of water for potable and non-potable purposes.

The bill envisages to extend the jurisdiction of BWSSB to the entire Bangalore Metropolitan Area, including the BBMP. Once all the newly-added areas of the BBMP come under the BWSSB ambit, residents there can hope to get piped Cauvery drinking water supply in future.

The bill is yet to be debated in the assembly.

Premji University

The Government also tabled the Azim Premji University Bill, 2010. It seeks to replace an ordinance in this regard.

The Azim Premji Foundation has come forward to establish a private university which aims at focusing on teaching, training, research and development in the fields of elementary education, secondary education, besides education in management, education in finance, technology in education etc.