Telescopic mistakes
The plan, as of now, has been stalled due to certain water issues, which are yet to be settled. To top it all, the hike in water tax has played havoc in many societies with the telescopic billing that has created considerable confusion. Engineers, too, are not ready to cooperate with the sorting out of discrepancies in the billing process.
The society in question is the Good Will Cooperative Housing Society in Wadala, which consists of six buildings. Prior to the new system all the six buildings paid the same amount of water tax. We just fail to understand this billing system. Our earlier bill amounted to Rs 1.16 lakh, for one quarterly period and now the bill has mounted to Rs 2.75 lakh, says Sameer Rana, joint secretary of the society.
The residents of almost all the six buildings have complained that the civic authorities are highhanded in dealing with citizens. We used to get bills amounting to Rs 12,000 every quarter, but last quarter we were shocked to receive a bill for Rs 54,000, says Rana, who has taken the bill reading for the last four quarters.
He has clearly pointed out that the bill would come to anywhere between Rs 10,000-15000 for each building. The problem gets complicated further with some buildings showing the original bill amount for the quarterly period while the other buildings show the bill with the hiked amount.
Many such buildings in the F-N ward are also facing the problem. There are eight flats in our society and the new telescopic billing method wrongly shows it as six flats, due to which our bill shows double the billing amount. We have written to the F-N ward hydraulic engineer several times but no reply has come from his end.
On visiting the N ward, we were informed they would make the necessary corrections. It has been nearly two months and no reply or corrected bill has been received.
The residents are even more upset as the assistant hydraulic engineer of the F- N ward has been rude in his approach to them. He was blunt and said that we should live in the slums, if we wanted to pay less water tax, says Rana.
When contacted MCGMs hydraulic engineer S S Korlekat, he said that he would certainly look in to the matter and will instruct the F-N ward to take the required steps immediately.
swatim.soni@timesgroup.com
What is telescopic billing?
The water supply considered by the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MGCCM) is 150 litres per day per person.
An average family is considered to be of five members, so consumption should not exceed 750 litres per family per day. If it exceeds this, a penalty rate is charged. So from 150 to 200 units, the penalty rate charged is Rs 7 per kilolitres (1 kilolitre = 1000 litres). For 250 units and above the penalty rate charged is Rs 14 per kilolitres.