R K Handa
The public Health Engineering Department JK UT is beset with numerous problems which include:
WATER BILLING: Bills are being generated during 1st week of January every year mentioning bill date say 7th January 2021.In the bill last date for payment is mentioned as 1st of April 2021. The amount due before due date is also mentioned. The amount to be paid after due date is also mentioned which is about 1.5 % higher. The tragedy is that the bills when generated are not printed and delivered to the consumers immediately after generation in their system. The generated bills remain in the system only. Only once a sincere consumer approaches the concerned sub division of PHE Deptt, the bill is printed and handed over to the consumer for payment through online mode or in J&K Bank. The Deptt is not concerned whether the consumers pay for the water charges or not.
The PHE Deptt has copied the format of bill from Power Development Deptt without applying mind.
PDD delivers bills to the consumers at their residences and is doing a right thing by charging interest in case the consumer does not pay the tariff before due date but PHE Deptt. has no right to ask for interest after the due date mentioned in their bills. How a water consumer is supposed to pay interest on belated payment when the bill has not been delivered to him. This shows the casual approach of the deptt. PHE Deptt is not bothered whether they generate money or not and when a consumer approaches them for non receipt of water ,the officers simply say that the electric motor has burnt or transformer is out of order and they don’t have funds to repair the equipment.
It is understandable that for small amount of water tariff the bill delivery cost may be quite high but they need to devise ways and means to get the bills delivered to the consumers. May be PHE Deptt can tie up with PDD for delivery of bills through their meter readers who regularly visit the consumers. This can be done once a year in January every year. Bills can also be sent by post. Some officers of PHE Deptt may argue that the consumers should themselves collect the bills from PHE Deptt offices or down load bills. Are we computer savvy? No, not at all. Will the consumers visit PHE Deptt offices to collect the bills? No.
If the compares the revenue collected by PDD against the bills raised by them are compard with the bills generated by PHE Deptt and revenue received by them certainly the performance of PDD will be found better.
Water resource and regulatory authority need to work on this seriously and urgently.
What for PHE Deptt is charging money from consumers? For delivery of dirty water which does not enter in the kitchens or wash rooms even on the ground floors. On one hand Housing and Urban Development deptt is envisaging ground + three storey’s in their master plans while on the other hand the PHE Deptt is not able to deliver water upto the floors permitted by Municipal Corporations or Development authorities. What a mismatch? We are talking of smart cities .Are we prepared to provide ease of living to the public? What for public is installing water filters? It is because we are getting dirty water through leaking pipes. Public is spending money on purchase of filters, for annual maintenance of filters,costruction of sump tanks and overhead tanks, installing of pump sets on the water lines directly (supposed to be illegal from the point of view of PHE Deptt), spending money on consumption of electricity to run filters and electric pump sets. Is it not a national wastage? When will Jal Shakti Deptt awake from slumber sleep?
Water distribution system is faulty although STUP Consulting Co engaged by ERA in 2005 designed proper water distribution system whereby every household can get water at the same pressure but the design was not followed.
Water distribution lines are laid in the middle of the roads. They should be laid under the footpaths or on the edges of the roads. Best would be incase parallel ducts are constructed along the roads, each duct reserved for water distribution line, electricity cable, fiber cables, telephone cables and so on. This is possible with proper planning.
The height of overhead tanks of PHE Deptt should be such that water reaches on the top of each house. This is not being thought of.
PHE Deptt does not know how much potable water they are producing and how much water is actually being received by consumers. This is because of non installation of water meters. How can the water distribution be managed when it cannot be measured. Even a tailor and a carpenter use tape before using scissor or a saw. Let us learn from them atleast.A number of times water metering is being talked about .When will it happen is not known.
Water is being wasted by washing cars on the roads. No care is being taken by us that we are not only wasting this precious commodity but also spoiling the macadam of the roads. This can be prevented to a large extent in case the deptt fixes tariff on slab system i.e those consuming water more than the prescribed limit pay water tax at higher rate.
Illegal bores are being drilled by public under the nose of the deptt. Even illegal bores have been drilled by some unscrupulous people on the public land and then drawing water to their premises.
Even some commercial establishments are drawing water in two inch pipes by theft. This needs to be stopped.
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