Tenants of small, medium houses may be spared borewell charge

The BWSSB earlier imposed Rs 100 per month on tenants of all buildings

There is some good news for those who live in rented homes and use borewell water. The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) has proposed a partial rollback of borewell charges it proposed in January this year. It took the step following opposition from corporators and citizens.

The BWSSB had imposed Rs 100 per month on each household, including tenants, for using borewell water.

It argued that the used borewell water is being released into sanitary lines and sewage treatment plants (STPs), which are built and maintained by the BWSSB.

The decision meant that all tenants living in a large house had to pay an additional Rs 100 per month each, which was previously paid by the owner only. In the first week of March, Deccan Herald had reported that the BWSSB may roll back the “revised” borewell charges in the wake of opposition.

At a recent meeting, the BWSSB recommended these changes: only the owners of 20x30 and 30x40 sites will have to pay Rs 50 and Rs 100 respectively as borewell charge. In case of a building constructed on a 60x40 site, all households, including tenants, will have to pay Rs 100 each every month.

Partial rollback
S Krishnappa, engineer-in-chief, BWSSB, insisted that the poor and the middle class had not been burdened. “Because of the partial rollback, the board will lose revenue of Rs 2 crore a month. We had revised borewell changes to make up for the BWSSB’s expenditure on the maintenance of public borewells,” he told Deccan Herald. At present, the board spends Rs 7 crore on average a month to maintain 7,000-odd power-generated public borewells and Rs 30 crore to maintain Sewage Treatment Plants (STP), he added.