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The Task Force for Implementation of the Third Finance Commission'sRecommendations on Tuesday said that the urban bodies and grampanchayats should take steps to fix meters to water connections.This would not only help them in increasing revenue but also inbetter utilisation of water. If meters were not fixed to waterconnections, the grants given to urban bodies and panchayats by theState government would be stopped, task force members said atreview meetings held in the Mangalore City Corporation (MCC) and inthe zilla panchayat here. Task force Chairman A.G. Kodgi and members T. Thimme Gowda andMahendra Kanti participated in the meetings. The task force stressed the need for fixing meters and periodicrevision of water tariff. It also sought details regarding propertytax collection and issuing trade licence. Mr. Kodagi said the State government made it mandatory for theurban local bodies to fix meters to water connections. Collectionof water tariff and property taxes and trade licence fee would makepanchayats self-reliant. Metering of water connections would go along way in preventing wastage of water. In the case of MCC, the consumption of water had been 280 LPCD(Lakh Per Capita Daily) for the city's population of five lakh."There will be no water scarcity if connections aremetered," Mr. Kodagi said. He did not accept a councillor's view that malfunctioning of meterswas because of saline water. "Three years ago, Kundapur facedwater shortage. With meters, there is surplus water. Kundapur isnow supplying water to five gram panchayats," he said. MCC Commissioner Harish Kumar said the corporation had disconnected350 public taps. "We will be giving water connections tohouses in the area and then disconnect the public taps," hesaid. About the status of revision of water tariff, Mr. Kumar said a fewmonths ago the Urban Development Department sent to the corporationthe revised rates. The department said the revised rates should be applied followingapproval from the corporation's Council. Mr. Kumar said the Councilrefused to accept the tariff. Accordingly, the State government hadbeen intimated. "If you are saying no to revision of water tariff and alsofor metering connections, then the Council went against the spiritof Karnataka Municipal Corporation Act," Mr. Kodagi said. The task force members wanted gram panchayats also to revise tarifffrom time to time. They expressed displeasure over the tardy progress in bringingproperties under the tax net in the Mangalore City Corporation andthe zilla panchayat limits. Mr. Kodagi expressed the need for property registers, which wouldinclude all properties exempted from payment of tax. The members were surprised that the corporation did not have a listof trade outlets that functioned without licence. I am an expert from swimmingpool-cleaner.com, while we provides the quality product, such as Swimming Pool Filter Systems , Fish Net, Swimming Pool Brush,and more.
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