Thiruvananthapuram: The
Kerala water authority (
KWA) is struggling to overcome its financial hurdles.
Besides issues such as the scarcity of water, non-revenue water and various other factors, reluctance of consumers to pay pending arrears troubles KWA the most. Incidentally, institutions in the city tops in the list of defaulters in the state.
In the list of the top 30 defaulters from the state presented in the Assembly by water resources minister Mathew T Thomas, two-third of defaulters are from the city.
The Medical College Hospital tops the list with a whopping amount of Rs 44.91 crore. The SAT Hospital and University Hostel for Men follow with Rs 19 crore and Rs 14 crore arrears respectively.
Kerala Health Research and Welfare Society (KHRWS) pay ward in Medical College has pending arrears amounting to Rs 12 crore, while KHRWS pay ward in SAT campus has arrears of Rs 8.1 crore. Another connection in the name of KHRWS near SAT Hospital has a bill of Rs 3.21 crore.
A connection in the name of DSP, palace guard under commissioner of city police has pending arrears amounting to Rs 7.6 crore. A connection in the name of director of department of tourism has to pay Rs 7.3 crore, while director of Kovalam guest house under KTDC has a pending due of Rs 5.7 crore. The Juma Masjid, Sastamangalam and Muslim Jamaith, Beemapally have bills worth Rs 5.6 crore and Rs 2.9 crore respectively to pay.
Sasidharan Nair C of Hotel Hilten at Thampanoor have to pay arrears worth Rs 5.09 crore and Biju George of Pongumoodu has pending dues of Rs 4.11 crore. KWA officials said that dues of individuals in the list are pending as they had challenged the bill in court and cases are going on.
Hoissery processing unit of Hantex at Pappanamcode has dues worth Rs 4.18 crore. The director of industries at University of Kerala has to pay Rs 2.9 crore.
KWA officials said that highest number of defaulters are from the city. “As per the billing software, Thiruvananthapuram city alone has a pending arrears of Rs 250 crore. Most of the major defaulters are government institutions. We are conducting various revenue adalats to facilitate payment of pending dues,” said a senior official of KWA.
KWA officials said that they could not go for options such as disconnection in institutions like hospitals. “In some cases, the pending dues might be for connections which are now defunct. Revenue recovery is the only remaining option in such cases. However, revenue recovery has not happened in a single case of pending dues,” said a KWA official. For one time settlement, KWA has offered to reduce the rate of interest from 24% to 14.5%. It also offered payment of arrears in instalment.
MCH principal Thomas Mathew said that the current dues are a result of accumulated bills over the years. “Recently, government has allotted around Rs 10 crore, with which we settled bills in 2016-17 period. We are planning to settle all dues in six months,” he said.
