NMC Nagpur News - 3 years on, monthly water billing system still in cold storage

NAGPUR TOI NEWS : It seems the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) is serious only about increasing the water tariff but doesn't bother about reducing the burden on the citizens. It is

evident from the way it has put the monthly water billing system in the cold storage for the last three years. Not only this, the civic body has failed to even fulfil its commitment of issuing monthly water bills to citizens covered under the demo project for 24X7 water supply.

When NMC increased the water tariff exorbitantly on April 1, 2009, it faced strong opposition. The then municipal commissioner Aseem Gupta took initiatives to change the water billing system. He decided to introduce monthly water billing instead of the quarterly billing system to reduce the burden on the citizens. He even decided to launch the photometer billing system on the lines of power bills. Tenders were also floated for this project during Gupta's tenure. However, the entire process has been on the back burner since then.

Meanwhile, water consumers from demo project area launched a series of agitations against NMC's failure to issue the monthly bills. The office-bearers, including the then chairman of standing committee Sandip Joshi and leader of ruling party Praveen Datke, who was chairman of water works committee, too assured to introduce the new system. In fact, it was a part of the demo project. Now, the rehabilitation period (replacing old and leaking water network and installation of new meters) has come to an end. Still, the NMC's water works department (WWD) has not taken any initiative to issue monthly water bills.

Now, it's been one year since NMC handed over the operation and maintenance of the entire water works to private operator Orange City Water Private Limited (OCWL) but the new system is yet to see the light of the day.

Secretary of Jan Aakrosh Ravi Kashedikar told TOI how the monthly billing system could benefit citizens. "Power bills are issued on a monthly basis and have photocopies of the meter. This assures transparency and paying bills becomes easier financially for the consumers. However, the NMC's water works department never took the initiative forward in the larger interest of the citizens. The NMC claims to have issued bills in every month during the demo project but the WWD seems not interested as it may be against its own interest. The monthly billing will also benefit the NMC as will get revenue every month instead of once in three months," he said.

Praveen Datke said that the monthly billing system would solve many problems. "We will take initiative to ensure monthly billing system is started. I am too a strong supporter of billing system on the lines of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation," he said.

Consultant for water works projects Dinesh Rathi said that monthly billing is not mandatory according to the agreement executed between NMC, NESL and private operator. "The operator has been given three options. The monthly billing may be feasible only for some selected category of consumers consuming high quantity of water. But the operator may introduce the monthly billing after completion of rehabilitation project. Many of the water meters are now either non-operational or slow. Few consumers do not have water meters. Meters will be installed at every household in rehabilitation project. Then the monthly billing may be feasible," he said.

Notably, the NMC has failed to also start citizen facility centre and single-window system at all zones in these 12 months.