Mangaluru City Corporation is yet to collect ₹ 16.42 crore water bill dues from defaulters over the years. Of the defaulters, 144 owe more than ₹ 1 lakh each to the civic body.

This came to light during a meeting chaired by Minister for Urban Development and Housing U.T. Khader at the corporation here on Tuesday.

Replying to a question from the Minister, Executive Engineer (Water Supply) K.S. Linge Gowda said that Dakshina Kannada Cooperative Milk Union Ltd. (DKMUL) owed ₹ 7.85 lakh and the Southern Railways was yet to pay ₹ 6 lakh for consuming water. Ullal City Municipal Council and Mulki Town Panchayat together owed about ₹ 1 crore and the carry forward dues of the erstwhile Kannur and Bajal gram panchayats stood at about ₹ 2 crore. The KSRTC owed more than ₹ 1 lakh.

When the Minister asked, Mr. Linge Gowda read out the names of some of the individual defaulters. A visibly upset Mr. Khader then asked the water supply officials why no action has been taken against the defaulters. “Are you colluding with the defaulters?” he asked.

The Minister gave two months deadline to collect the dues from all defaulters and said that he would review the matter again later.

Mr. Khader also questioned the revenue officers why notices have not been issued to those who have not paid property tax. He asked corporation Commissioner Mohammed Nazir to take a performance report of revenue officers after serving notices to property tax defaulters.

Some councillors told the meeting that double property tax would have to be collected from those buildings which have been given temporary door numbers. Such buildings which have not obtained completion certificate from the corporation are given temporary door numbers. In many cases, the revenue section of the corporation has not collected the double tax.

Praveenchandra Karkera, Revenue Officer, told the meeting that 8,200 such owners [of only 5,000 buildings] are paying double tax.

Mr. Khader said that the corporation would have to take up visionary projects considering the growth of the city.

Mayor Bhaskar K., D. Vedavyasa Kamath and Y. Bharat Shetty, MLAs and Ivan D’Souza, MLC, were present.