Pics: Spoorthi Ullal
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (ANK)
Mangaluru, Aug 10: Mayor Kavitha Sanil on Thursday, August 10 urged the general public using water within Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) limits to pay the amount of pending water bills within 15 days.
Addressing media persons here, the mayor said, “Water bills of various domestic and commercial users falling under corporation limits are pending. A total of Rs 20,37,84,730 is pending from 50,000 consumers since the year 2000. The MCC has been prompt in issuing bills, but some consumers have not paid anything. Hence, defaulters are instructed to pay the pending amount within 15 days from today. If not, action will be taken against them.”
“When Mangaluru was facing acute shortage of water, we supplied water by working day and night. People need to pay this huge pending amount. After I took over as the mayor of the city, we disconnected the water supply of 2,000 consumers who failed to pay their bills. However, we resumed the water supply after the consumer paid the bills. There are 85,000 water connections which fall under MCC limits. I hereby request the consumers to pay the pending amount at the earliest,” she added.
Elaborating the pending amounts, she said, “There are 166 consumers with over Rs 1 lac amount pending, 350 consumers between Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lac, and 2,780 consumers between Rs 10,000 to Rs 50,000,”
When the media queried about water bills not being issued in some areas, the mayor said, “We will adddress that issue. I assure you, within 10 days, water bills will be issued to those areas.”
When questioned about high court notice over raids, the mayor said said, “We were right in raiding the massage parlour. The MCC had issued the license to Green Valley Unisex Salon only to run the salon and not the massage parlour. The high court had asked us to appear before them on August 9, but the notice itself was dispatched on August 7. So I received the notice on August 9 late evening. Therefore, I could not appear before the court.”
Former mayor Shashidhar Hegde, corporators Rauf and Sabitha Misquith, and engineer Naresh were present.