The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : River authority on course: Minister

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Tuesday, Dec 02, 2008
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Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

River authority on course: Minister

Special Correspondent

It will have punitive powers to manage and regulate rivers

Draft Bill being prepared
Water tariff arrears put at Rs.179 crore

Thiruvananthapuram: Water Resources Minister N.K. Premachandran has said that the government is on course for setting up a river authority with punitive powers to manage and regulate rivers in the State.

Replying to the debate on the Kerala Water Supply and Sewerage (Amendment) Bill in the Assembly, Mr. Premachandran said a draft Bill was being prepared for this. The government had set up the Pampa Basin Authority in order to keep the Pampa Action Plan on course and make use of the second instalment of Central funds.

He said a statutory river water authority had become imperative to coordinate river management that was spread over several stakeholder departments. The Bill, which was introduced to replace an ordinance, was referred to the Subject Committee.

Responding to criticism against the promulgation of an ordinance, the Minister said that subsequent developments had vindicated the need for the ordinance as it led to punitive action against theft, unauthorised connections and misuse of public taps.

He said the Kerala Water Authority had detected 424 cases of violation, including 57 cases related to unauthorised connections, 247 theft cases and 97 cases of misuse of public taps. The KWA had filed 18 criminal cases, besides collecting Rs.37.11 lakh as fine and tariff arrears.

Justifying the recent increase in water tariff, he said the increase was intended to cover the arrears the KWA had to pay to the Kerala State Electricity Board.

The authority incurred a power bill of Rs.11.50 crore a month, with little scope for subsidy.

He said tariff arrears came to Rs.179 crore, of which domestic connections accounted for Rs.55 crore, non-domestic Rs.98 crore and industrial connections Rs.26 crore.

Public sector undertakings had an arrear of Rs.60 crore, while Rs.40 crore as arrears related to the pre-KWA period when the Public Health Engineering Department was in charge.

Over and above this, local self-governments had to pay up Rs.601 crore. He said the 135 per cent hike in water tariff was applicable only to consumers who used more than 50,000 litres. According to one calculation, there were 30,000 to 50,000 BPL connections.

Plachimada issue

He said the government was working on the “polluter pays principle” as far as contamination of groundwater at Plachimada was concerned. The government was considering setting up a committee that would recommend compensation to the affected people. The Ground Water Authority would coordinate this, he said.

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