The Hindu : Front Page : Drainage fee in Coimbatore to be Rs. 170

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Friday, Mar 28, 2008
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Drainage fee in Coimbatore to be Rs. 170

K.V. Prasad

No cross-subsidisation to ensure lower rates for low income groups

One-time connection fee for residential buildings is Rs. 4,968.
It is Rs. 10,180 for commercial establishments.

COIMBATORE: The Coimbatore Corporation is moving towards levying a flat sum of Rs.170 a month from residents for underground sewer connections that will be provided in the city in a couple of years under a scheme mooted first in 1998.

Affordable

This has followed discussions held over a decade on rates that would be affordable to all sections of the population.

Apart from this sum for residential connections, a Government Order issued in October 2007 has fixed the monthly charge for commercial establishments at Rs. 339 for each connection. The one-time connection fee for residential buildings (per connection) is Rs. 4,968.

It is Rs. 10,180 for commercial establishments.

This is in sharp contrast to an earlier proposal for varying rates based on the paying capacity of different income groups.

The Corporation had earlier worked out rates with the property tax rates as the basis.

Approval

Political parties expressed shock over the resolution on the user-charge finding its way quietly into the Corporation Council for its approval on Thursday.

Cross-subsidisation had been planned so that the middle and higher income groups paid more than the lower income group.

Even these rates had faced resistance from Opposition parties, including the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, on the grounds that they were exorbitant.

Participation

At more than 10 all-party meetings, the concept of financial participation by the public through user charges had been rejected by the parties.

Now the scheme is to be implemented at a cost of Rs. 377 crore under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission of the Union Ministry of Urban Development.

The mission stresses this form of public participation (also called stakeholders’ participation).

The maintenance fee is described as one that will help the Corporation sustain the facility. Now the flat charges will have to be paid irrespective of the amount of waste discharged from various buildings.

The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam attributes the high maintenance fee to the cyclic activated sludge process, the technology that is to be used for sewage treatment.

Consumption charges

The use of this technology will entail huge power consumption charges. This burden is being passed on to the people in the form of exorbitant drainage maintenance fee, it says.

The Corporation says the rates have been fixed with an eye on long-term maintenance of the sewers and operation of treatment plants.

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