JAIPUR: Public health and engineering department (PHED) has collected Rs 1.20 crore since the beginning of the campaign to mop up pending water bills.
More than Rs 100 crore is pending with people, but given the slow pace of collection, it seems to be difficult for PHED to be able to fulfil the target.
PHED has started a campaign from November 22 to recover water bills pending in the Jaipur region. Water bills are pending with the public and various government departments. Also, many water bills are pending for the last 10 years.
Additional chief engineer Manish Beniwal said, “We have been working every day to collect the bills but due to holidays and some technical reason the progress is slow. But we are certain that the progress will speed up further.”
The campaign will continue till March but if in 15 days only Rs 1 crore is collected than by the end of financial year officers won’t be able to collect more than Rs 15 crore.
During the campaign, people are being given an option to either pay the bills on the spot when officers go to collect it or their water connections will be disconnected within few days. In the city, there are 4,000 industries with water connections out of which 2,000 have been disconnected and 2,000 are still connected. Connected ones are easy to track, but for the disconnected ones, PHED officials have to find out how many of them haven’t paid their bills. Many government departments also have to pay their water bills. State government offices have to pay around Rs 1 crore water bills and central government around Rs 12 lakh.
