Mangaluru : MCC served a water bill recently of Rs 1 lakh against their monthly average consumption of Rs 300 at most. A middle-class family in Kodialbail received a shocker bill.

Many households have reported such inflated bills; some customers said the multi-purpose workers (MPW) who take the meter reading were overworked, leading to faulty bills.

The family comprises three members – a 70-year-old man, his 65-year-old wife and their 40-year-old daughter.

Corporator Prakash Salian said the problem persists in all wards of the city corporation. “There’s no proper mechanism to issue water supply bills in the city. The corporation has given the responsibility to multi-purpose workers who also carry out the antimalaria campaign. Though they have started the work on issuing water supply bills, they are yet to get proper training in it. Many domestic consumers have received bills to the tune of Rs 70,000,” he said.

MCC officials said Rs 1.02 crore has been reserved towards salary of 60 MPWs, who are issuing water bills besides carrying out the malaria drive. “These are all initial hiccups, It may take a few more days to channelise the process,”an official said.