Water bill in Uttarakhand: Now payment will have to be made in villages as well
An important change is taking place in Uttarakhand, in which now people living in villages along with cities will also have to pay water bill. This step has been taken under the Jal Jeevan Mission of the state, which has increased the number of drinking water connections. Let us know about this new rule in detail.
New rule of water bill – From now on, all water connections in Uttarakhand, whether urban or rural, will come under the purview of drinking water bill. Earlier bills were being collected from only 3.5 lakh urban and 1.5 lakh rural consumers. But now this number will increase to 17 lakh consumers.
Impact of Jal Jeevan Mission – Under the Jal Jeevan Mission, the number of rural drinking water connections has increased significantly. Earlier this number was only 130,325, but now it has reached 1,414,567. The aim of this mission is to ensure standard supply of 70 liters of water per day to every person. When this standard is met, only then will the recovery of water bills be started.
Bill recovery process – The recovery of water bills will now be done at both the levels of Jal Sansthan and Jal Nigam. In villages where the responsibility of drinking water operation lies with the Gram Sabhas, the Gram Sabhas will themselves collect the water bills.It will be decided between Jal Sansthan and Jal Nigam as to which area will be under whose responsibility. However, there is pressure from Jal Sansthan to give only the areas of villages to Jal Nigam. Jal Nigam has objected to this, saying that collecting water bills from rural areas can be a loss-making deal.
What does it mean for consumers – This new rule will have a direct impact on all those consumers who were not paying water bills till now. Now they too will have to understand their responsibility and pay the bill on time.However, some challenges may also arise with this change. Recovery for water can be difficult in rural areas, as people are often unable to pay. Additionally, water corporations may incur losses, which can impact their services.
