Team Herald
MARGAO: Several citizens have expressed anger over hefty water bills issued by the Public Works Department (PWD), that too for the period of nearly five to six months. People have even alleged that the government has fooled them on the free water scheme.
People on Wednesday said many have received the water bills of eight and ten thousand rupees for the domestic usage. They have demanded department should give more time to pay the bills, and to allow it to pay in instalments.
People are now planning to take out morcha against the concerned officials over the issue in the next couple of days. They have also alleged that the department is deliberately issuing bills for a long period so that the consumers are deprived of the scheme launched by the government.
Speaking to Herald, Nixon Fernandes from Raia charged the PWD for creating hardships before the consumers pertaining to water bills.
“Why cannot the department issue water bills every month? The bills issued for the period of six months are not acceptable,” said Fernandes.
Irked citizens even presented the bill calculated for the six months ranging from Rs 1500 to Rs 8000, even more than that.
Laxman Naik, a senior citizen said that they could hardly manage to run their houses and such harassment by the government is like a punishment to them.
The panicked consumers also complained about the bills with no official stamps.
“It is now proven that the free water scheme was launched just to fool the people of Goa. PWD is deliberately issuing the bills after a long gap so that consumers are not benefited from the scheme. On the contrary they are burdening the people with hefty bills,” said Franky Fernandes from Navelim.
