Water Resource Minister Chandra Prakash Chaudhary has adopted tough stand on pending water bills with agencies like railways, different business houses, big companies and factories operational in Jharkhand. Holding a high-level meeting with officials of the Department, the Minister ordered to slap the defaulters notices to recover pending water bill in tune of a whopping Rs2,680 crore.
Chaudhary, after the meeting, directed the officials to take immediate steps and issue notices providing the defaulters a time to pay their bills otherwise be ready to face the legal action. “As per an estimate with the Department the pending water bill with different firms and companies would be not less than Rs2,680 crore. The list includes corporate giants, railways, cement companies and mines,” said an official.
Figures say that S-E Railway, Hatia is sitting over Rs2.22 crore while S-E Railway, Muri has Rs1.25 crore. Rs1 crore is pending with Hindalco plant at Muri and Rs44 lakh against BIT-Mesra. The list includes names of ACC (Jhinkpani), Tata Steel (Noamundi), SAIl (Gua), Jupiter Cement, ArcelorMittal, JSPl, Bhushan Power and Steel, Electro Steel and so on.
The list also includes PSUs such as UCIl, TVNl and host of power plant projects in the State. The Department, at the same time, also acknowledged some of the cases pending in the courts and the Minister directed the officials to pursue those adequately.
