Only 43 pc people pay water bills regularly: MCC

Talking to media persons on the sidelines of a water adalat in Surathkal on Wednesday, he said the corporation would start a drive in August to collect dues from defaulters and disconnect water supply connections in case they did not pay.

The MCC will soon publish a list of habitual defaulters who owe more than Rs 1 lakh towards water bills. The list will comprise both domestic as well as commercial users, he said.

The Mayor admitted that some consumers were getting exorbitant bills after the spot billing method was extended to all 60 wards in the corporation a year ago. This was owing to some fault in the meters. However, such consumers would not be termed “habitual defaulters,” Bhat said. He said that if there were faults in the water meters, consumers should replace them on their own. “Quality meters are available in the market for Rs 800. After replacing faulty meters, consumers should inform the Corporation about it and produce a copy of the guarantee card,” he added.

Answering a question, he said the defaulters owed about Rs 11 crore to the Corporation. This amount includes Rs 3.5 crore that the Kannur and Bajal Gram Panchayats had to pay to the corporation for supplying water from the Thumbe vented dam.

The MCC has earned a revenue of Rs 21 crore through water bills in the period between April 2008 and March 2009, Bhat informed.

The adalat solved several public woes. The water bill of one D M Ismail was reduced to Rs 2,000 from Rs 1,81,000 mentioned in the bill, while another Jayanth V got a fresh bill of Rs 2,000 instead of Rs 97,000.