PMC water dept recovers ₹104 crore pending dues from defaulters
PMC accounts department has pegged the recovery to be a meagre 20 per cent of the amount pending with various government departments
The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) set a target for pending arrears revenue of ₹500 crore for the last fiscal, but has been able to recover ₹104 crore so far and most defaulters are central and state government departments, who have been owing crores of rupees in water bills for the past several years.
PMC accounts department has pegged the recovery to be a meagre 20 per cent of the amount pending with various government departments.
PMC water department claimed that it supplies water to various defence establishments, cantonments, educational institutes, state institutions and universities including the railways. However, the said departments are delaying payment to the civic body which has led to a steep increase in pending arrears.
The total water bill related pending arrears has been pegged to be around ₹ 619 crore. Following the briefing of the pending arrears, Vikram Kumar, PMC commissioner, had fixed ₹526 crore arrear recovery target for last fiscal. However, the water department has listed the lack of a proper mechanism for arrear recovery, state and central government departments knocking on the court’s doors seeking relief, and lack of payment on time as some of the reasons behind the long-time pending arrears not getting recovered.
Some civilian institutions too had approached the court for faulty billing and lack of adequate water supply.
Aniruddha Pawaska, water supply chief, PMC, said, “For the first time we have been able to recover an amount of over ₹100 crore. We have issued notices to the defaulters and have also disconnected the water supply to those consumers who had not paid their water bills.”
Among the major defaulters is the Pune Cantonment Board (PCB) which owes over ₹50 crores as pending arrears.
PMC water supply department had also approached the Lok Adalat and filed cases against the defaulters. However, some of them paid and informed the Lok Adalat that they would not falter in their payment in future but failed to keep their promise. At least, ₹35 crore of arrears were recovered during the Lok Adalat conducted recently.
