Bangalore University and the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) have been fighting a battle since December 2013. The reason is the water bill of that month of their Jnanabharathi campus.
The university was asked to cough up ₹20.28 lakh in December 2013. Now, after calculating the interest and the penalty, the university has to pay about one-and-a-half times the amount. In October 2017, the university was asked to cough up ₹53.76 lakh.
Earlier this month, the university took up the matter with the Urban Development Department and also with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. In a letter, the Vice Chancellor said that the bill of ₹20.28 lakh was ‘faulty’ because the average monthly bill between November 2010 and November 2013 has been around ₹5.8 lakh. The university asked the government to waive off the money and added that the varsity provides higher education to students from Schedule Castes and Schedule Tribes, and from rural areas.
BWSSB said that if the bill needs to be waived off, it needs to be produced before the appellate committee, which examines such issues. “The client needs to explain the reason why the bill needs to be reduced. If there is a valid reason, then the executive engineer will forward it to the committee,” a BWSSB official said.
