On September 22, 2016, The Goan had highlighted how JICA water meter testing equipment has been lying idle at the PWD head office, Margao for want of a water and electric connection.
MARGAO
Nearly seven months later, on April 18, 2017, the machinery is still not put to use. Don’t be surprised if the equipment is still not commissioned for want of a water and electrical connection, notwithstanding that complaints are galore around Salcete’s countryside over excess water billing on account of faulty JICA
water meters.
When The Goan contacted JICA senior engineer Karekar to shed light on the delay in commissioning of the water meter testing equipment, he offered the same explanation which he had stated nearly seven months ago – that the equipment could not be commissioned for want of power and water connection. In fact, caught on the wrong foot, Engineer Karekar said the agency appointed by the government would be in a better position to explain the delay in obtaining power and water connections.
The episode has only brought to the fore the absence of coordination between two divisions of the PWD headed by Minister Sudin Dhavlikar and the failure of the department top brass to get the machinery commissioned over the last few months.
What’s surprising to note is the very attitude of the department officials when the PWD water supply division is flooded with complaints of faulty JICA water meters, the reason cited for the exorbitant water bills.
If the PWD water supply division headed by Assistant angineer Vijai Kudchadkar had received close to 90 complaints of excess billing on account of the faulty JICA meters seven months ago, the number of complaints received from water consumers has not stopped since then. In fact, not a single day passes without the PWD division receiving complaints of excess billing, with the engineers expressing their helplessness in mitigating the hardships faced by the consumers.
That’s not all. While senior PWD engineers have reported close to 90 cases last year to the higher ups for rectification of excess bills, none of the bills stand settled till date for want of decision by the PWD top brass.
Sources in the know say that the JICA office had last year replaced around 70,259 water meters under the Selaulim water supply scheme from various sub-divisions. But, it has turned out that the maximum cases of higher amount of billing has been reported from sub-division II and that too from
Margao constituency.
Says a senior PWD engineer, water supply: “There’s still no solution yet to the problem. In the absence of a system to rectify the water meters or faulty billing system, the PWD junior engineer/technical assistant in charge of the locality is directed to install new JICA water meters to a connection and the reading for 15 days consumption for calculating the average consumption for a month”.
It was pointed out that this average reading shall be then used to correct the bill for the disputed period. Though this methodology as agreed by all the officials at the meeting held last year to overcome the problem, not a single water consumer has received relief till date from the department.
