Pune residents and businesses are reeling under massive water bills due to the PMC’s failure to conduct regular meter readings for over a year. With severe manpower shortages, the civic body issued lump-sum bills running into lakhs, sparking outrage, financial distress, and demands for immediate administrative reforms.
Mrudula Narale
Pune: A colossal administrative failure by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has left citizens struggling under the burden of astronomical water bills, with some commercial establishments and housing societies being handed consolidated charges of lakhs of rupees. The inability of the civic body to carry out periodic water meter readings for more than a year in addition to an acute shortage of manpower has caused an outcry among citizens and shopkeepers alike, who are currently facing huge lump-sum bills following the PMC’s inefficiency.
Since its implementation of equitable water supply policy, the PMC has fitted around 1.8 lakh water meters in Pune, with a large number of them being commercial establishments. But the water supply department is grossly undermanned with just 24 meter readers against a sanctioned strength of 83. Due to the shortage of manpower, there were months-long durations when meter readings were not taken, especially for commercial connections. Consequently, businesses and societies which were unbilled for almost a year have now been issued consolidated bills which have ballooned into lakhs, catching many unawares and triggering allegations of discriminatory penalization.
The effect of this neglect can be glaringly seen in localities such as Bavdhan, as in the DSK Ranwara Society that has more than 500 residential flats and several commercial shops. The society had been used to getting bills between Rs 70,000 and Rs 80,000 every month, based on normal meter readings. The overnight call for such an enormous sum, coupled with a 1% monthly interest on arrears, has led to alarm and frustration among the residents and traders, who blame the PMC for its mismanagement.
The reason behind the situation is the failure of the PMC to have an adequate number of employees. With 59 of the 83 meter reader positions lying vacant and no fresh recruitments in the past few years, the department is finding it difficult to administer the city’s extensive network of water meters. Even key technical positions, including fitters and supervisors, are undermanned, with 50 to 55 posts reported vacant. Experts opine that even the authorized number of meter readers is inadequate to deal with 1.8 lakh meters, stressing the need to enhance manpower urgently to ensure timely and precise billing.
Residents have swamped the PMC with grievances, asking for revisions in the inflated bills, but the civic body has blamed policy and procedural constraints, and many have been left without immediate respite. A switch to more accurate new meters has also been found to record increased consumption, adding to charges further. While the PMC boasts of resolving complaints regarding faulty meters by inspecting them, this is of little comfort to those who are caught off guard with additional financial burden.
The fiasco highlights deeper concerns of administrative incompetence and accountability deficit in the PMC. Citizens and entrepreneurs are demanding systemic overhauls, ranging from more staff, regular meter readings, and transparent billing, to scrutiny of bill payment timelines and tenure transparency. As the civic administration panics to meet the outrage, the incident is a wake-up call for better governance to ensure that such errors do not go on to haunt the citizens of Pune.