PMC sinks; arrears cross quot;dangerquot; mark

PUNE, Nov 12: Alarmed by the decline in recovery of water cess, the Pune Municipal Corporation will soon chalk out an action plan and also c...

PUNE, Nov 12: Alarmed by the decline in recovery of water cess, the Pune Municipal Corporation will soon chalk out an action plan and also come out with several administrative measures to meet the situation.

The civic officials said the corporation had recovered only Rs 9.56 crore during the first six months of the present financial year as against the target of Rs 34 crore. It includes Rs 6.6 crore recovered in city and Rs 3.5 crore in the two cantonments.

In the same period last year, the corporation had recovered Rs 8.75 crore. The civic officials maintained that the rise in this year8217;s recovery is deceptive since the water cess for the domestic purpose was increased from Rs 2 to Rs 2.50 and from Rs 10 to Rs 12 for commercial purpose for every 1000 litres of water. They pointed out that the recovery had come down considerably in view of sizable hike in the water cess.

The PMC is now planning to take some emergent steps which are expected to be implemented from December 1. Additional Municipal Commissioner Deepak Kapoor, who has been successful in increasing the octroi revenue by undertaking various experiments, is holding a series of meetings with officials of the water supply to chalk out the action plan.

The officials said the administration was planning to install electronic flow meters at various places to curb the water leakage.

The per capita water consumption on paper in the city was 225 litres while every person was getting only 165 litres of water every day. The officials believe that the electronic flow meters, installed at various spots, would help the staff in identifying the stretch where the water leakage was taking place.

Secondly, the administration was also planning to replace the old fashioned meters with the modern digital meters. The officials have found out that most of 75,000 water meters were either out of order or were damaged. This has been affecting making of correct bills. The digital water meters are expected to demonstrate the exact use of the water and there by will help in collection of the water cess. Besides, the random and surprise checking will be undertaken to confirm whether the metre reader had taken the correct reading.

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Stating that the corporation was spending a massive amount of Rs 22 crore for power, the officials said the administration was planning to bring down the expenses. They said urgent repair work of pumps at all the water works would be undertaken, which is expected to bring down the expenditure.

As part of the campaign to recover the water cess arrears, the PMC will identify 500 institutions like hotels, industries and hospitals, which owe huge amount to the corporation. The sources said the municipal corporation has failed to recover the arrears of water cess of about Rs 50 crore in the past few years.