Mangaluru: Following up with the recovery of water bills from bulk consumers, the Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) has collected Rs 1.32 crore out of 7.77 crore, pending froma cumulative of six years.
According to Deputy Commissioner (Revenue) Raju Mogaveera, Rs 77 lakh was collected through cheques and Rs 55 lakh in cash. Mogaveera also informed that his officials disconnected as many as 15 connections for non-payment.

It may be recalled that the MCC had given a deadline of December 7 to about 1,200 bulk consumers for payment of dues. The deadline was then relaxed by a week.  Six teams had been constituted for collecting the dues and disconnecting connections.

Mogaveera said that of the 83,058 water connections, only 78,221 were live, but the contractor assigned the task of giving bills had not issued bills to about 20,000 such consumers, claiming that those many connections do not exist.

Reasons for the 20,000 connections “not being found” could be: building or houses for which the connections were given could have been demolished; the connections could have been disconnected due to non-payment of bills or other reasons; the property might have been sold to others or it could be due to clerical error in the corporation.

“The reasons for 20,000 connections not being found could be due to four factors. The buildings for which connections given could have been demolished, the connections could have been disconnected due to non-payment of bills or other reasons, the property might have been sold to others or it could be due to clerical error in the corporation,” informed Mogaveer.