2 min readApr 14, 2012 04:17 AM IST
First published on: Apr 14, 2012 at 04:17 AM IST
Central and state government agencies in the city have piled up water bills of Rs 87 crore over the past decade and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has threatened to cut their supplies if they do not pay arrears,a senior civic body official said on Friday.
Rajiv Jalota,additional municipal commissioner (water supply),said the civic body has informed the respective government offices about their outstanding dues. “If they do not pay despite repeated warnings,we will have no other choice but to cut their water supply. The entire procedure might take some time. We are also planning to take various measures to ensure that such huge sums do not pile up again,” he said.
As per data available with the hydraulic engineer’s department of the BMC,the state government owes a sum of about Rs 62 crore while the Central government’s dues amount to around Rs 25 crore as on March 31. This year,the civic body has incurred a total outstanding amount of about Rs 729 crores. The other government and semi-government agencies that have outstanding dues are Central and Western railways,Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT),MHADA,BEST Undertaking etc.
Deputy hydraulic engineer Anil Tawadiya said a prior notice would be sent to the government offices in order to recover the outstanding dues.”We are in talks with the agencies on this issue and hope to recover arrears by the earliest.”
The constant rise in the dues is owing to civic body’s failure to recover the amount for more than 10 years.
The BMC’s warning to the government agencies is not new as they raise the issue every year. Former mayor Shraddha Jadhav had urged Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan last year to direct government departments to pay their dues,but the coffers haven’t been filled so far. This year,the BMC has planned to pursue the various government agenices with a view to enhance the revenue of the civic body.
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