Raia-Manora locals upset over delayed water bills

The villagers say that due to  the delay, the villagers have only four days left to pay their water bills which make it very difficult for salaried and poor people to arrange money at such a short notice. 

Villagers say that the PWD charges them for the delay but doesn’t acknowledge the delay they have made in delivering the bills.

The villagers who have lost their patience over the delayed water bills have warned that if the bills are not received on time they will not accept the bills and neither pay them on time. Anthony Fernandes from Raia-Manora says the PWD Minister Sudin Dhavalikar and the authorities are solely responsible for this problem.

Anthony Fernandes, a villager from Raia told Herald that this month he has received water bill 9 days post the issue date. Anthony says “9 days delay in the delivery of the bill leaves only with 6 days to pay the bill, adding to that Saturday and Sunday is a non working day, which effectively leaves only 4 days for the consumers to pay their bill. In this little time it’s impossible for us to pay the bill”. He adds that the department charges us for the delay in payment but doesn’t take into account the delay in the bill delivery.

The villagers have taken morchas and submitted memorandums to the Executive Engineer of Division 4 of PWD numerous times. But nothing seems to be changing. Remy Barbosa from Manora said that when they met the PWD officials the complaint of staff shortage due to work load. Remy says, “The previous Government had recruited 1500 contractual meter readers and the billing was in sync with dates, the BJP Government has sent these 1500 workers home and now the whole system is failing. This isn’t what the public expected”.

The villagers of Raia-Manora have demanded that the delay in the delivery of bills must be compensated by extending the due date by the number of delayed days. The villagers have warned that if the PWD does not accept their demands they will stop taking bills and making payments.