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| Tug of War between PHE, Housing Board | | Residents suffer without water; officials puncture claims of good Goverance | | Early Times Reporter
Jammu | Dec 18
Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad may have been busy patting his back for introducing new form of ‘work culture’ in the working of various state government departments but a closer look and critical appraisal are enough to puncture tall claims of the government. The ongoing tug of war between Public health engineering department and the Jammu and Kashmir state Housing Board Corporation over non-payment of water bills to the tune of over Rs 2 lakh is one such glaring example which proves that despite enormous hype on the issue the working of key departments has not changed at all. The spat in question between the two agencies is causing lot of hardships to residents of sector 2 in Channi Himmat housing colony as they are running without fresh water supply for over last 10 days but no one sitting at the higher echelons of power is willing to listen to appeals of residents and resolve the crisis.
For over last 10 days the Public health engineering department has cut water supply lines of large number of residents in order to recover their dues from the Housing board corporation. These residents are staying in flats constructed by the Housing board corporation under Self financing scheme.
According to senior PHE authorities they were forced to take this extreme step due to complete lack of co-ordination by the housing board corporation authorities. The PHE officials say we have disconnected water supply to recover pending water bills.”We have been telling Housing board authorities to clear their pending dues but they were not doing it” ,PHE officials said justifying their action.
Significantly the Housing board authorities, who first of all created the entire mess is busy passing on the blame to residents instead of resolving the issue. The Housing board officials are claiming that it is the residents who have not deposited their water bills in time and the amount is now accumulated. “We are not responsible for non payment of bills. It is the consumers and not us who are defaulters, housing board authorities claim. What they conceal is the fact that until they prepare the bills and give receipt to the consumers who will and under what head will make the payment to clear the dues.
It may be mentioned that during last month the housing board authorities had published a notice in one of the local newspapers on November 17 directing the residents to pay their water bills. Since then the residents were making regular visits to their office to provide them the details of pending dues so that they can repay their bills but no information is available with housing board authorities till date. The only reply residents making rounds of the office of the DGM is that we are working out the details and wait for some more time.It is not clear how much time they will take to prepare water bills.?
Ironically the same housing board authorities have been delaying the final settlement of water crisis for past several years. A local resident in the area said they are caught in a precarious situation.” We want to pay our bill but housing board is not ready to accept the bill as they are still busy collecting the details.” On the other hand requests made to the PHE officials to release the water supply to allow the residents to survive seems to have fallen on deaf ears as residents are still struggling to get fresh water supply. |
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