TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: PWD minister Ramkrishna Sudin Dhavalikar has promised to initiate an inquiry in the alleged Rs 67 crore water scam, the Goa Su-Raj Party (GSRP) informed Wednesday, even as it said the Minister admitted that 42 per cent of water pumped-out from the Assonora Plant was unaccounted for, according to departmental investigation.
A scam of large magnitude is occurring right under the noses of the public and government, the Goa Su-Raj Party had alleged. Relying on RTI documents, it argued that at a commercial consumer rate of Rs 30 per cubic metre, the total loss to the state exchequer worked out to Rs 66,89,62,710 per annum after the Public Works Department gave details of the total water pumped from Assonora water treatment plant and some borewells.
The Assonora WTP pumps approximately pump out one lac cubic metres of water per day i.e. 30 lac cubic metres of water per month to Bardez taluka.
And the total water supplied to the people was 3,78,89,594 cubic metres while the total units recovered from the consumers for the same year were only 1,55,90,855 cubic metres leading to total unaccounted water during that year was 2,22,98,739 cubic metres. If calculated on a daily basis, the total unaccounted water in Bardez taluka is 6 crore, 10 lac litres per day.
According to the GSRP, the minister assured them that besides the inquiry, he would look into their other demands of ensuring that all commercial establishments in Bardez are checked for siphoning off water, all supervisors working at various PWD departments in Bardez are transferred immediately;
investigations to be conducted into the existence of a water-mafia in Bardez and a look-out exercise will be conducted to spot for such irregularities of water pilferage and the inquiry report to PWD Minister in 10 days.
Speaking on the Rs 67 crore water scam Floriano Lobo, general secretary said “We want the problems of the people to be solved and the PWD Minister has given us the assurances and we would like to believe that he would act on this shocking irregularity, which is depriving the people of Bardez of regular supply of water.”
Surprisingly in January, the wells in Bardez were almost dry.
