Submersible pumps: Mayor leads from front, deposits pending dues

LUDHIANA: Mayor Balkar Sandhu has led by example, depositing pending dues worth Rs 31,000 for the installation of his own underground submersible pumps in the dairy complex on Hambran Road on Saturday. “I had not deposited the user charges for the past few years. Therefore, I should take the initiative and clear my dues too. I paid Rs 31,000 to the MC,” he said.
Yes, even before the civic officials could start recovery of the user charges from residents who had installed illegal submersible pumps at their residences and did not clear the pending dues, the mayor took the imitative and deposited the pending amount. “Earlier, nobody came forward to collect the dues but then we started a survey against the defaulters to recover the pending dues. It is also my duty to deposit my dues,” he said.

The MC officials have detected more than 4,000 submersible pumps, which have been installed illegally in the premises, in the survey. The survey was kicked off in April to collect the record of total submersible pumps in city and recovery of the pending dues from the defaulters, who have installed the pumps illegally in their houses.

The MC has started issuing the recovery notices to the defaulters and asked them to make clear the outstanding amount from 2010 till 2018. The officials said they have started receiving the pending dues and have already recovered Rs 50 lakh from the defaulters.

The survey will be completed by June 15. Meanwhile, officials from other branches of MC is also put on this job. The officials said nearly 4,000 submersibles have been traced for which the residents are not paying the user charges.

The MC recovers user charges from residents because they throw excess water in the MC sewerage system through submersibles especially when MC is already providing water through tube wells.

Meanwhile, mayor Sandhu blamed the previous government and said it was their duty to recover the pending amount from all possible resources. However, they never paid attention. Sandhu rued that now they do not have enough money to pay the salaries of the officials and hence they started this survey.

As per officials, there is a complete ban on installation of submersibles privately due to excess digging of ground and falling levels of ground water since 2010. In case any person wants to install the submersible pump, then he has to apply to a 23-member committee headed by the additional commissioner (development) for an approval. The committee members would then check the property and take a decision whether the submersible pump can be allowed or not.