Karnataka - Mangalore   

MCC resumes issuing water bills

— PHOTO: R.Eswarraj

CONCERN: Consumers with thier water bills at the Mangalore City Corporation counter in Mangalore on Thursday.

MANGALORE: People who have not received their water bills during the last four months – two months in some cases – may get them soon.

The delay has been due to the change in the agency generating and issuing the bills at the doors of consumers, according to Mayor Praveen.

A new agency was tasked to issue bills with effect from April 15, 2011 after the conclusion of the three-year contract with Prasanna Technology, Mangalore - the agency hired for the purpose earlier. The new agency chosen was BCITS Pvt. Ltd. Bellary. It had begun issuing the bills from June 5, he told The Hindu.

Problems persist

G. Hanumantha Kamath, president, Nagarika Hitarakshana Samithi, alleged that the change of agency had not made much difference to consumers. Many people who received the bills continue to visit the corporation office to rectify errors.

He said that people continued to complain about excess amount being charged and bills having “meter not reading” status despite the meters functioning normally.

Mr. Kamath alleged that while transferring the data of consumers from the old agency to the new one the civic body had transferred only sequence numbers without addresses of many consumers. It was a major problem, he alleged.

Recalling an incident occurred at Jodumatha Road on Wednesday Mr. Kamath alleged that a bill issuer returned without issuing the bill to a house as the sequence numbers uploaded in the hand held spot bill issuing machine did not have the address.

Mr. Kamath alleged that in some cases the bill issuers were asking for a copy of an old bill from consumers for issuing bills now. It was creating problem for those who lived in rented houses. As the corporation had not issued bills for over four months in some wards tenants who lived there had shifted to other areas.

Jayarama, a resident of Gorigudda, said that usually his water bill was between Rs. 65 and Rs. 70 a month. He did not receive the bill since April. Now for two months (April and May) he had been charged Rs. 180. He said that when he went to pay the bill at a bank at Kankanady four days ago he was witness to an argument between a consumer and a bank staff over paying the water bill. The bank staff was refusing to accept the bill stating that the bill amount was pertaining to some earlier months. The consumer was arguing that he had received the bill for those months only a day before .

A representative of of BCITS Pvt. Ltd. in Mangalore admitted that there were some initial hiccups in issuing the bills. However the billing details of 65,063 of the 72,512 consumers had already been uploaded in the spot billing machines and bills were being issued.

The Mayor said that he was aware of the complaints and would address them.

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