Thursday, Apr 29, 2004
Thursday, Apr 29, 2004 |
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Bangalore
By Our Staff Reporter
By Our Staff Reporter BANGALORE, APRIL 28. In future, you can step into a kiosk to pay your child's school fees. And while you are at it, you can even pay your power, water and telephone bills too. Does that sound incredible? According to the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), which is setting up the kiosks, these multi-utility machines will eventually offer 40 services. Right now, you can pay the BWSSB, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) and Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Ltd. (BESCOM) bills at these "KaverEcom" kiosks. On Wednesday, the kiosk at the BWSSB's Jayanagar division had a customer in the Lokayukta, N. Venkatachala. After using the kiosk, Mr. Venkatachala told presspersons that he had gone to find out "how useful the kiosks really were." He asked the BWSSB Chairman, M.N. Vidyashankar, how many kiosks the Board planned to set up and when the other services, including payment of fees and credit card payments, would be available. "BSNL and BESCOM pay us Rs. 5 per transaction. The other services will be added once we negotiate the rates with the service providers, schools, and banks," Mr. Vidyashankar said. The Chairman said 100 such kiosks would be set up by December 2004, and another 100 by June 2005, with each kiosk costing Rs 5.4 lakhs. While the Lokayukta was there, some consumers came in to pay their bills. Gayathri Raveesh, a resident of Jayanagar 3rd Block, complimented the BWSSB. "Paying bills is not a hassle any more," she said.
Tech. and corruption
Mr. Venkatachala said the use of such technology would reduce human intervention and, thereby, corruption. But he noted that the BWSSB should provide facilities for the underprivileged sections of society too. "You must help the poor. It will be cruel to deny them basic facilities and give more comforts to those who already live well," he said. To this, Mr. Vidyashankar said the Board had set up individual and group water connections for six slums in the city and planned to extend it to 45 more slums. "We find slum dwellers prompter in paying their water bills than the others," he added. Mr. Venkatachala also inspected the BWSSB's "revenue billing software" and its geographical information system for Bangalore South.
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