A whopping amount of over Rs 2.6 crore drinking water cess from consumers is pending in the Baleswar town itself. While on the one hand the consumers are not paying the tax suo moto, on the other, the PHED doesn’t have adequate number of staff for door-to-door collection of the current as well as regular bill.
The town consumes about 31 million liter daily (31 MLD ) water. The PHED supply caters to the the need of over 14,000 domestic consumers as well as 200 business, commercial and other establishments. Besides these consumers, there are about 700 stand posts by which drinking water is supplied by PHED. Sources said the general domestic consumers while pay Rs 106 per month and reserve category consumers Rs 52, for the commercial establishments the rate is Rs 346 per month. However, due to want of regular collection, the arrear amount is about Rs 2.6 crore.
Executive Engineer, PHED, Pareswar Jena, besides admitting the staggering arrear, also said that lack of adequate staff had been an impediment in collection of water cess as a sizeable population was not paying the bill voluntarily.
Reports also said that the table of ground water was depleting fast and with the growing population, the city might face acute scarcity of drinking wate. Although the PHED had planned to tap the river water of Sono and supply it to the residents under AMRUT scheme after purifying it, yet the same couldn’t take off.
A survey of river water suggested that since Sono also faces lack of adequate water during summer, proposal to divert its water for drinking purpose was not viable. The department said that other two river sources, Bankatira and Tribeni ghat, were under consideration for supply of water.