VASCO
The Mormugao Municipal Council (MMC) plans to take advantage of the State government’s One Time Settlement (OTS) scheme to clear its pending power and water bills.
When contacted, MMC Chief Officer Agnelo Fernandes confirmed that many bills of the MMC had been unpaid for around 20 years.
“The issue is that there were many electricity poles which have disappeared over the years but the electricity bills for those poles kept coming to MMC every month and no one checked if the pole was physically present or not.”
“Similarly, there used to be public taps many years ago and when the PWD provided water connections to every household, these public taps were disconnected and almost 80 percent of these taps have been closed. Yet, water bills for these taps have been sent to the MMC even though there are no public taps.”
“We have got final figures from water and electricity departments and the government has come with a very nice OTS scheme. I will write to both departments to check how much waiver they can offer the MMC regarding the bill amounts,” said Fernandes.
Appreciating the efforts of the chief officer, former MMC chairperson Kritesh Gaonkar said the OTS scheme is the best platform to clear the pending bills.
“If the bills are cleared through OTS, we will get a waiver and all bills pending for so many years will be cleared at one shot.”
“No doubt, the MMC was facing a financial crunch earlier but the MMC has begun a strong drive to recover arrears and this will settle the long-pending issue of the MMC once and for all,” said Gaonkar.
