The Council of Mangalore City Corporation in its meeting on Friday decided to suspend water supply to areas under the Ullal Town Municipality from Padil, unless the municipality paid Rs. 1.6 crore water bill due to the corporation in seven days.
But the Opposition Congress councillors told the Mayor Praveen that the decision was not fair. They said that the municipality might be facing some problems in paying the water bill the corporation. A final decision should be taken after consulting the municipality, they said. But the Mayor did not agree with them.
The Mayor said that the municipality had been given enough time to pay the dues. But it was not paid. There was no point in giving more time to it.
An agenda note on the subject placed at the meeting said that the corporation was supplying water to areas under the municipality since January 1, 2010. It had supplied 32,96,200 kilo litres of water till August 31, 2011 to it. Its total bill till August stood at Rs. 1.70 crore as Rs. five per a kilo litre. Earlier on December 28, 2010 the municipality had paid Rs. 10 lakh to the corporation as water bill. Hence the balance stood at Rs. 1.60 crore.
It said that earlier the corporation had written to the municipality on December 31, 2010 to pay the balance bill. Later the corporation council in its January 31, 2011 meeting had resolved that the corporation and the municipality should sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) according to which the municipality should be charged Rs. six per a kl of water. According to the proposed MoU, the municipality should pay the monthly bill regularly and also pay Rs. five lakh per month till it cleared the dues.
The Commissioner of the corporation on September 19, 2011 wrote to the municipality to sign the MoU with the former before September 30. The letter said that it would be given a deadline for paying the dues, if not the corporation would suspend water supply.
The agenda note said that the municipality had failed to respond to the letter from the Commissioner.
Former Mayor M. Shankar Bhat said that the municipality should pay at least half of the dues to the corporation in a week. Otherwise, the water supply should be suspended.
Streetlights
Councillors cutting across party lines told the Mayor that streetlight maintenance system in many areas was not proper. The Commissioner Harish Kumar said that he would look into it.
Leader of the Opposition in the council Lancelot Pinto opposed the move of the corporation to seek the help of builders to construct storm water drains and footpaths in the city. He said that when many builders have built buildings by violating rules and regulations, the corporation should not have sought their help. He questioned the Mayor for keeping away other councillors from the meeting he had with builders.
