The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Decision on borewell cess upsets residents

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Monday, Nov 10, 2008
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Karnataka - Bangalore

Decision on borewell cess upsets residents

Afshan Yasmeen

A sum of Rs. 50 will be charged per house in new BBMP areas from December 1

— FILE Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

MORE BURDEN: People collecting water from a tanker lorry in Bangalore.

Bangalore: Residents of outlying areas of the city are upset with the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board’s (BWSSB) decision to collect cess from houses and apartments having borewells.

After taking over the maintenance of borewells in the new areas of Bommanahalli, Byatarayanapura, Dasarahalli, K.R. Puram, Mahadevapura, Rajarajeshwaringar, Yelahanka and Kengeri from the city corporation early this year, BWSSB decided to collect borewell cess from December 1.

The cess, which will be Rs. 50 per house, will be applicable to those who get borewell water through pipes or have a borewell. Residents of old BBMP areas have been paying Rs. 50 as borewell cess since 2003. This amount is included in their monthly water bills. But in the new areas where only 1,527 of the 49,525 households in 72 wards have metered connections, the board will issue bills exclusively for collecting borewell cess.

The officials are conducting a door-to-door survey to find how many houses have borewells or depend on borewell water.

This has irked house owners who have been waiting to get Cauvery water connections for the last four years.

“We have to depend on borewell water as BWSSB is yet to give us connections. Even after spending lakhs of rupees to drill the borewells, most of us depend on tanker water as the borewells have gone dry. I do not understand the logic behind the collection of the new cess when our borewells have become dysfunctional. Both the borewells in our apartment have gone dry,” K. Jayaraman, a resident of Pai Layout said. Mr. Jayaraman is one of those who have paid a fee of Rs. 15,000 to BWSSB in July 2004 for a Cauvery water connection.

P.R. Krishnamoorthy, a resident of Kuvempunagar in Ramamurthynagar, paid a fee of Rs. 5,000 for his house on a 30 x 40 site along with a penalty of Rs. 1,800 for delayed payment in January 2007. But water is still a dream for him. Now he has to pay the additional borewell cess even if it has gone dry.

M. Verghese George, treasurer of Kuvempunagar Residents’ Welfare Association, is surprised. “I have not tasted pipe water, be it borewell or Cauvery, in the last 12 years that I have been staying here. I got a borewell drilled in 1997 in my backyard but it has gone dry. I spend at least Rs. 1,000 a month on tanker water. Why should I pay the borewell cess?” he asked.

But the board has started the process and the new cess will be collected from December 1. While the BWSSB officials blamed the residents for not taking Cauvery connections, the residents are upset with the penalty that they have to cough up for delayed payment of user fee for the connections.

On the move to collect borewell cess, a top BWSSB official said, “That is the water board’s decision.”

“We have estimated that there are nearly two lakh borewells in the new areas and we need money for maintaining them,” he added.

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