Urban consumers seek cut in water tariff

Rajiv Mahajan

Nurpur, March 4

People living in the Nurpur Municipal Council (MC) area have urged the state government to either extend free piped water scheme to urban areas or slash water tariff to Rs 100 per month. The urban consumers have been paying Rs 221 per connection for the piped water since April last year and the same will rise to Rs 243 from next month.

The Jal Shakti Department (JSD), previously Irrigation-cum-Public Health Department, had been increasing the water tariff by 10 per cent every year since 2005. The then Virbhadra Singh government had issued a notification for the annual hike. An urban domestic consumer, who paid Rs 40 for per water connection in 2005, will have to pay Rs 243 per month from April. The inflated water bills have become a bane for the urban poor as the JSD issues water bills after four to six months.

Residents have urged the state government to revoke the notification as poor families were unable to pay hefty water bills. Promod Mahajan, president of the Nurpur Sudhar Sabha, and PD Sahotra, general secretary of Town Welfare Committee, alleged that the state government was discriminating against the urban households by not giving them any relief on tap water bills, whereas the same had been waived off for consumers in the rural areas.

The then Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur during the Himachal Day function in Chamba on April 15 ,2022, had announced free piped water scheme for rural areas, but had not extended it to the urban households. The urban residents had submitted several memorandums to him, but the previous government did not take up the matter.

A lot of resentment was brewing among the urban consumers over non-acceptance of their demand.

Recently, the locals submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister, demanding revocation of the 2005 notification and pleaded that poor families were also residing in the urban areas. The residents of the town said discrimination with the water consumers was against the spirit of the Narendra Modi government’s ‘Jal Jeevan Mission’ scheme aimed at ensuring access of piped water for every household in the country through individual household tap connections by 2024.

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