THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With a view to bring down delay in sanctioning water connections, the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) has decided to post special teams in each of its sub-divisions in the city to process and sanction applications for water connections.

As per the new arrangement, a two-member team, consisting of an Assistant Engineer and an overseer, will be in charge of processing all applications for fresh water connections in the four sub-divisions in the city. The new system will be introduced only in the Thiruvananthapuram PH division on an experimental basis.

The new arrangement will also make the process of sanctioning water connections more transparent, KWA officials claim.

According to sources in the KWA, as many as 10 officials ranging from the peon to the Assistant Executive Engineer at a KWA sub-division are now involved in processing and sanctioning a customer's application for a new water connection. "From the time an application is received, as many as 28 separate actions are required to sanction a water connection. This puts an enormous workload on officials in each sub-division," a KWA engineer said here.

Under the new system, an application would be accepted by the overseer at a sub-division. Based on his report, the Assistant Engineer will forward the file to the Assistant Executive Engineer. After the required fee is paid at the sub-division the `work order' will be forwarded to the Assistant Executive Engineer by the Assistant Engineer along with the site plan of the proposed connection.

The connection is then effected immediately and the file closed.

Only four officials are involved in processing the application and the number of steps involved in issuing the sanction is reduced to six.

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