Now, pay water/sewerage bills online

Shivani Bhakoo

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Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, December 8

Good news for residents. After filing property returns online, now is the time to make payments of water/sewerage bills online. The Municipal Corporation authorities have tied up with HDFC Bank for providing this service to the residents. If the bank officials and the MC authorities are to be believed, then from tomorrow onwards, the residents can make their payments online.

The Branch Manager, HDFC Bank here, Dinesh Khurana, said the bank was through with all formalities and now the IT Department of the MC had to make it live for public by evening today. “If all goes as per expectations, then from tomorrow onwards, residents can make payments online for their water and sewerage bills,” said Khurana.

When asked if the procedure was tough or tedious, officiating Municipal Commissioner Ghanshyam Thori said the residents were already filing their property returns online and this would be an additional service.

With this facility, the residents whose arrears (water and sewerage bills) were pending for long, are going to face some difficulty. Ashwani Kumar, a resident of Civil Lines, said he had got a TS 1 certificate after depositing all dues with the MC as he wanted to get a loan from a bank in 2006. “But again arrears have been added to the bill. We have shown the TS 1 issued by the MC to the staff concerned but nothing is showing on the MC’s account/computer. How can we pay bills online in such circumstances when we ourselves are not clear about the exact amount of the bill?” asked the resident.

Another resident said if the MC wanted that online service for payment of water and sewerage bills was successful, then it must start with the payment of new bills only. “Pending bills with arrears should be paid manually or else there will be a lot of confusion as bank officials will be having no previous record. In the manual submission of bill payments, residents can make part payment if bills are massive. But this facility will not be there in the online service. The public interest in large should be kept in mind by the MC authorities,” said another resident.

At the same time, Nitin Kumar, a trader, said this was an excellent facility provided by the MC as it will save their time and energy. “Earlier for getting a meagre amount of Rs 1,000 deposited with the MC, we did the rounds of the offices. But now, with just one click, we can pay our bills,” said Kumar.