Bijendra Ahlawat
Tribune News Service
Faridabad, July 7
The Municipal Corporation, Faridabad, has issued around 50,000 notices in connection with the recovery of water bills in the city. The arrears amount to around Rs 70 crore.
While Rs 50 crore pertains to the period up to December 2019, Rs 20 crore is in respect of the period thereafter. As notices have been issued to consumers in only two of the five divisions so far, more notices are likely in near future.
“According to a recent survey, almost 75 per cent water connections are unauthorised. While there are 5.6 lakh tax paying units in the area, there are only 1.3 lakh registered water connections,” says Garima Mittal, MC Commissioner. The latest drive aimed at collecting pending dues and regularising unauthorised connections, she said.
Illegal water and sewer connections might be causing an annual loss of around Rs 5 crore to the civic body, sources said. A similar drive was undertaken last year too, but with not much success. This time, FIRs might also be lodged in cases of water theft.
The city, with over 20 lakh population, is getting 240 MLD water against a demand of 300 MLD. The total annual revenue generated from water and sewer connections is around Rs 12 crore.
75% connections illegal