Didn’t get water bills? MCG says flaws in property ID data

GURGAON: Since June 15 last year, when the colony where Mukesh Malhotra lives was taken over by MCG, he has not received any water bills. Malhotra has been running from pillar to post and has visited the MCG office a number of times to get the bills over the past year, to no avail.
The reason that MCG officials give him for not issuing the bills is a discrepancy in property tax data. To rectify this, he had visited a camp organised by the corporation on April 12 and 13. But the data still hasn’t been changed in the records two months later, due to which water bills aren’t being issued.
“I want to pay my water bill since I fear that MCG staff can come anytime to disconnect the connection, as I haven’t paid it since last July. I was never issued a bill after the MCG takeover and there are other residents too who have not received it. MCG officials told me that my property tax data is incorrect, due to which the bill hasn’t been issued to me. I attended the camp which was organised in our colony to fix the property ID data, but two months on, the corrections have not been updated,” said Malhotra, a resident of Ardee City. Malhotra is not the only one who is approaching officials and RWAs to get their water bills. In Ardee City alone, the RWA said there are 150 such residents who have not been receiving water bills after the colony takeover.
Another resident, Sumit Saxena, said: “Before the corporation took over, I was paying my bills on time, but now MCG isn’t issuing bills. I have been trying to get the bill online, but it does not get generated since my property ID data is incorrect. I also attended the camp to get my data rectified, but it has not been done yet. MCG is not issuing water bills due to a fault of their own, but will come back with hefty penalties on the unpaid bills.”
“We raised the issue a number of times with MCG. A camp was also held but the corrections made there are not reflecting on the portal yet,” said Chaitali Mandhotra, a resident and member of Ardee City RWA. This is also likely to result in revenue loss for MCG. The estimated revenue from water charges for the 2023-24 fiscal year is Rs 80 crore, compared to Rs 75 crore estimated last fiscal.
Meanwhile, MCG officials said the process to rectify the data is under way and once the data is corrected, water bills will be generated. “We had organised camps to correct the property data. It is a time-taking exercise and we are trying to resolve the problem. Meanwhile, residents can visit the MCG office and we will try to address their problem on the spot,” said a senior official.