Early Times Report
Jammu, Mar 11: In shocking development, which exposes how the “dynasts” had taken governance for a ride, many of the government offices in Kashmir owe crores of rupees to the Public Health Engineering Department now (Jal Shakti Deptt) as water fee for decades, while Jammu “continues to starve for water due to such financial mismanagement.”
Official sources told Early Times that for the past over a decade, when the then former state was largely ruled by the Abdullahs and Muftis, many of the government offices in Kashmir “gave a damn” towards clearance of water fee bills thereby putting the state exchequer to undue losses, which affected water supplies in Jammu.
Sources said the MLA Hostel in particular in Srinagar, till March31, 2019 owes over Rs 60 lakh to the PHE on account of water consumption but that over the years not even a penny was paid towards the department.
Likewise, the health facilities including the Government Medical College Srinagar and several government owned hospitals like the SMHS Hospital, JLMN, LD Hospital in the summer capital owe whopping around Rs one crore towards the PHE.
Officials said several government run colleges and even the Srinagar Municipal Corporation and the Srinagar Development Authority also owe millions.
Officials said with this being the “irresponsible” behavior of the offices running within the city, the plight in other districts of Kashmir can only be imagined.
A senior official said the previous governments in Jammu and Kashmir had gone for a “secret formula” of letting such offices in Kashmir not clear the dues.
The officials said this non-payment of fee has been affecting the supplies in Jammu region especially the Jammu city which craves for water during hot summers.
“Given the shortage of financial resources, Jammu couldn’t get its due share of development of water supply network and this can be blamed on the pampering of government offices in Kashmir, who were made to give a damn to water fee,” said a senior official in the Civil Sectarian on the condition of anonymity.
He said the Raj Bhawan has taken serious note of the “chronic violation of law by such defaulters” adding that fresh notices have been served.
“We have served them fresh notices and are hopeful that the dues will be cleared as this money will definitely help to improve water supply network especially in areas facing shortage of water,” the PHE official said. |
