VVWW Executive Engineer expresses helplessness at MGP Meeting

Mysuru:  The Vani Vilas Water Works (VVWW) officials many a times cannot take decisions in the interest of the public on their own because of the political interference, said Executive Engineer Harish, expressing his helplessness.

He was speaking at an interaction meeting on “Distribution of drinking water, pros and cons’ organised by the Mysore Grahakara Parishat (MGP) at its general meeting in its Yadavagiri office, here yesterday.

VVWW officials cannot take any decisions on their own as they have to abide by the decisions taken in the Council meetings of Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) as also the pull and pressures of the elected representatives and the needs of the public, he said reacting to a question from one of the members of MGP.

He was also replying to a few questions posed by the MGP members in advance, regarding the JUSCO (Jamshedpur Utilities and Services Company) issue and the problems they had left behind, on 24X7 water supply to all 65 wards, whether VVWW has anticipated any problem in water supply despite the KRS being full, how much political pressure is there with regard to disconnection of water supply for non-paying customers and a few others, Harish and his officials were forthright in their replies without resorting to evasive answers.

On JUSCO he said that VVWW is using both the hardware and software assets installed by JUSCO. While JUSCO was active, some DMAs (District Metered Area) were getting 24X7 water supply. But no one is getting 24×7 supply today. JUSCO had completed 47 DMAs before leaving and VVWW are using the pipelines laid out in 42 DMAs and will start using the remaining soon. VVWW has plans to install new pipelines in the remaining 23 DMAs to give 24X7 water supply in the future under AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation).

He said that with the grants from the Central and State Governments, new pipelines will be laid for supply of drinking water in the majority of the wards under MCC limits and 66 KW electricity connection will be given.

VVWW has the responsibility to provide drinking water to 1.56 lakh houses in the city and out of this nearly Rs. 3.50 crore to Rs. 4 crore is being collected from 1.36 lakh houses per month. In the remaining houses due to technical problems water bill is not being collected, he said.

Apart from this, Water Works has the responsibility of supplying water to 10,000 commercial units, 6,000 small industries and 4,000 industries. Since there is political interference at times, the officials of the VVWW will not take any decisions but instead according to the directions of the MCC, noted Harish.

There is huge pressure to see that 24X7 water supply is provided as the city is growing, it is a tourist centre and also had bagged the cleanest city tag twice. When a member brought this issue to the notice of Harish, he said that this issue can be discussed only at the Government level and not at his level.

The Second Stage of Melapura drinking water project is fulfilling the needs of city through 11 KW line and even if there is a little disturbance then there will be disruption in water supply. To prevent this the work on the 66 KW line is going on. Once this is completed the problems the people of NR and Vijayanagar Assembly segments are facing will be mitigated, he said.

There are several complaints regarding the paying of water bill being faced by senior citizens. If this has to be stopped then a separate tax and audit department has to be opened in VVWW. Discussion is going on with the MCC Commissioner pertaining to this issue, said Harish in reply to another question from a member.

MGP Working President Prof. Sobana, Members Bhamy V. Shenoy, K.S. Venkatesh, M. Janakiraman, H.R. Balakrishna, Renu Agarwal, K.V. Ramnath, Ravindra Bekal, Prof. R. Chandraprakash, Maj. General S.G. Vombatkere (Retd.), P.M. Bhat, Srimathi Hariprasad, Pradeep Kumar, Raghavendra, Usha Narang, VVWW officials, AEE Lingaraju, AE Manjunath, B.L. Girsh, A.A. Muddumallegowda, JE T.G. Nagarajegowda and others were present.

Members’ suggestions

1. Every month an ‘Adalat’ must be conducted to hear to the grievances of the public regarding water supply and other problems
2. MCC should concentrate on water leakage
3. To strengthen the MCC Act to prevent water bill arrears and constitute a special task force team to collect Rs. 58 crore arrears
4. Incentives for people who are prompt payers of water bill
5. To simplify meter installation and replacement process