Ward No. 5 residents regret increased power consumption

Sukhmeet Bhasin

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, June 20

Residents of Ward No.5 are perturbed over the newly installed water meters, which are causing low water pressure and increased power consumption for filling water tanks in the ward. The ward councillor is flooded with such complaints. Even residents also want to remove the water meters as well.

Sukhdev Singh Brar, municipal councillor from Ward No. 5, said water meters had been installed in his ward recently. Residents of the ward were facing problems due to low pressure, which is resulting in more power consumption by motors. People were coming to him with a complaint that earlier they used to switch their motors on for 10 minutes and it would fill their water tank, but now it took more than half an hour.

Senior Deputy Mayor Tarsem Goyal said the issue was brought to his notice by many people who came to him and complained about water meters. He said the meters were installed to save water and stop its wastage. As we did not have a sufficient water supply here, there was no need of installing the meters. Further it would cause a loss of revenue to the MCB as now we started taking a fixed amount of bills from all the households. “After installing the meters we would get bills as per the consumption of water,” he said.

Gurmeet Singh, a resident of Ward No. 5, said the MCB had installed water meters at their houses, but since these meters have been installed, they are getting low pressure, affecting residents as now the meters were consuming more power.

It is also worth mentioning that residents cannot remove the water meters on their own. As per the policy, even if the meter is damaged deliberately, then five times of the last three bills would be recovered. If within one month, the meter is not repaired then the connection would be disconnected. A period of fifteen days would be given to pay the bill.

It is pertinent to mention that under the policy, consumers had to install digital tamper-proof water meters at their houses and commercial establishments.

It is mandatory to conduct the test of the meter before installing it at a cost of Rs 50.

Consumers had to bear the cost of the plumber’s work, which was to be done by a person authorised by the department.

The cost of all material required for connecting the meter with the system and digging of the road is to be borne by consumers.

In the policy, water charges for domestic usage are fixed at Rs 2 per kl per month for 10 kl, Rs 4 per kl per month from 10 kl to 25 kl, Rs 7 per kl per month from 25 kl to 50 kl and Rs 9 per kl per month for usage above 50 kl.

The charges for water used for commercial purposes are fixed at Rs 4 per kl for first 10 kl, Rs 8 per kl per month from 10 kl to 25 kl, Rs 16 per kl per month from 25 kl to 50 kl and Rs 32 per kl per month above 50 kl.