Balasore: Owing to staff crunch, water taxes to the tune of over Rs 2.8 crore have been outstanding against the residents of Balasore town in this district, an official source informed Monday.
Even as many of the local residents do not pay their respective bills in this regard, the Balasore Public Health department has failed to collect the outstanding amounts leading to the deficit situation.
According to a source, nearly 1,63,000 residents consume around 22 million litres of drinking water in Balasore town every day. Accordingly, groundwater lifted from 74 deep wells is being supplied to the local denizens through five overhead and 13 underground tanks.
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The tanks have a total storage capacity of 80 million litres of drinking water. The drinking water is being supplied to over 14,368 consumers through pipelines, of which 208 consumers are commercial and other establishments and 14,160 are individual households.
Water taxes have been fixed at Rs 106 per month for well-to-do families, at Rs 52 per month for BPL families including those coming under national food security yojana and at Rs 346 per month for industrial houses as well as commercial establishments.
The consumers are supposed to pay their respective water bills by the 10th day of every month, a departmental official said.
On being contacted, the department executive engineer Pareswar Jena said, “We are passing through severe staff crunch and have no way out for collection of payments. The state government has sought assistance of self-help groups (SHGs) for the collection of water taxes and supply of drinking water to authorised consumers as well.”
“Hence, we will engage one active member from each local SHG as ‘Jala Sathi’ for the purpose. Accordingly, 14 persons will be appointed in Balasore town,” the executive engineer added.
PNN