The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : New system for water connections

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 18, 2007
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Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

New system for water connections

Staff Reporter

Only six steps for getting sanction

Sanction likely within a week
All new connections to be handled by a dedicated office

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The new system put in place by the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) for speeding up the sanctioning of water connections became operational on Tuesday.

Minister for Water Resources N.K. Premachandran inaugurated the facility and handed over the ‘connection order’ to six consumers at a function organised at the Water Works compound, Vellayambalam.

As per the new system, an application for a water connection will be examined by four officials and the sanction will take only six steps. All new connections, irrespective of where the applicant lives, will be handled by a dedicated office of the KWA located near the swimming pool inside the Water Works compound. If there are no technical problems, the sanction for the connection will be given within a week from the date of submitting the application. All procedures relating to a fresh application will now be handled by a team of four Assistant Engineers and eight overseers.

The new system is being implemented in the Thiruvananthapuram division of the KWA. If found successful, the system will be introduced in other parts of the State, Mr. Premachandran said in his inaugural address. It was very important for the KWA to function as an organisation with credibility and regain the trust of the people. Under the new system, a consumer’s application for a water connection could even be cleared in three days if there were no major technical hitches, he said.

“Recently a pipeline laid as part of the Theerapatham scheme burst repeatedly at the Chalakuzhi lane. The KWA had to shoulder the blame for it, even though the agency had nothing to do with the laying of those pipelines. The Government is prepared to conduct an inquiry into the reasons behind these bursts,” Mr. Premachandran said.

As per the procedure for sanctioning water connections followed till date, as many as 10 KWA officials spread over different offices are required to go through a consumer’s file. The sanctioning of a fresh connection involves 28 different steps. As a result consumers, even those living in locations where no technical difficulties are involved in sanctioning a connection, have to wait for weeks on end to get a connection sanctioned.

Law Minister M. Vijayakumar presided. Mayor C. Jayan Babu, MLAs V. Sivankutty and K. Surendran Pillai and KWA chairman K. Jayakumar were present.

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