Mangaluru : Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) decided to recover pending water bills Rs 20.64 crore from 50,000 consumers.

Speaking in a press meet at MCC office on Thursday, Mayor Kavitha Sanil said, that total 166 consumers owe the MCC above Rs 1 lakh and one consumer has an overdue of Rs 7.47 lakh towards water bill starting from the year 2004! Now the MCC has taken a decision to crack the whip after a fortnight’s grace period for all the defaulters to clear their water supply bill dues. Thereafter, stringent action, including disconnection of water supply and publication of defaulter’s names in newspapers, will be taken if they fail to pay the bills within 15 days, she said.

She said defaulters include all categories of consumer – domestic, commercial, industrial and the government buildings. “We have noticed during a recent review that out of 85,000 connections in 60 wards of the city, nearly 50,000 are defaulters. The dues, when I assumed the charge as mayor was Rs 22,37,84,730. Later, the city corporation could collect nearly Rs 2 crore and currently the urban local body is yet to recover bills to the tune of Rs 20,64,01,032. Some of the consumers have dues starting from the year 2000 and many of them are from affluent backgrounds. We have decided to allow 15 days’ time for the defaulters to clear the due and action will be taken if they are not willing to come forward,” Kavitha said.

She added that officials will complete the billing process to cover all consumers, who have not received their bills, within 10 days.

She said officials of the MCC have already kept a list of defaulters ready for further action. “We have been striving to ensure uninterrupted drinking water supply to people of Mangaluru. It is the duty of every consumer to pay the bill on time and be part of all developments. We are just asking them to pay the bill issued for the water they used. We don’t want to embarrass those consumers by announcing their names at this stage. However, in the next phase, we will be forced to publish advertisements with the names of defaulters if they do not pay bills within 15 days,” Kavitha added.

Former Mayor Sashidhar Hedge, Sabitha Misquith and others were also present.