People of Margao and around have received no relief from the increasing electricity bills even after an year the issue was raised in the Assembly.
Several Madganvkaars have been recently troubled by the exorbitant amount of water bills which were delivered to them after the election. These bills are for a regular month of usage for the same houses which got 10 times lesser bills in the earlier months.
The suddenly shot-up bills of water consumption was brought to the notice after a Davorlim resident got a shock of his life when he received a bill of Rs 4,000 when he earlier got Rs400 to Rs600 for a month. Compared to other bills in the area and beyond, the bills have got higher than the affordable limit of the consumer.
In a another case the water bill of a consumer, who has been issued bills earlier at Rs. 135 for 34 units in November, Rs.190 for 48 units in December got a bill of Rs 1989 for consumption of 191 units and 67 days.
This bill generation clearly means that although the bill shows consumed units it has suddenly increased manifold in the recent bill and there needs to be an inquiry as how with the last bill dated 29-03-2017 the units have become more than the regular use thereof.
It has been learnt that the meter readers have delivered bills with reduced units and also told that the bill next time would be high and asked the consumer to be prepared for it. People are surprised and say how the consumption of the same house can grow to such an extent that the amount becomes unaffordable.
A resident of Power House junction area, Bharti Nayak said, “The meter reader of our line told me that due to election process the units are deliberately decreased and the bills issued. Now that the elections are over, the next bill will be tremendously high. If this is true then it has to be inquired so as to why such a thing was being told to the consumer.”
“We have to seek for an inquiry to the said tremendous rise in the bills which are not within the reach of the common man including myself. We are middle class people whose earnings are spent on livelihood leaving no extra money. In such a condition if we get these towering bills we will be unable to pay them.” said Mahesh Nayak.
Mulla J. from Aquem said, “I have received a bill of Rs 4,000 this month. I am a fruit seller and cannot afford to pay such a hefty bill.”
The fallout of the increased bills has resulted in people going to the local politicians and asking for relief. It is heard from sources that people have approached the politicians and asked them to give them money to pay the bill if they cannot reduce it.
Angry people have demanded that the bills be restructured and corrected to give them relief from the high billing.
Speaking to more people it was discovered that the people with old as well as the new water meters have been facing these problems of high billing. Sriram Raiturkar, the RTI Activist from Pajifond, said that he has received a bill of Rs 7,000 for his regular use of water. While speaking to Herald he said:”This is all related to the issue with the meters supplied by JICA. These meters are said to be running real fast which is increasing the units as well as the bills of consumer.” However, it has been noted that the bills of the old meters too have shot up by10 times.
The Assistant Engineer of PWD Water Supply division Kudchadkar said: “There were similar complaints in the past of high bills and after the direction of the PWD and the demand of the people, several bills from Margao, Fatorda and other areas were sent to the head office for correction. However, we are yet to receive any sort of correspondence from the office regarding the same.”
