Gurgaon: Residents of Palam Vihar are miffed after recently receiving water and sewerage bills from MCG for a period of 13 months from April 2020 to April 2021 on an unmetered basis.
The bills are based on the size of plots.
Moreover, the residents have been asked to get their existing water meters replaced with ones certified by the civic body.
On Tuesday, the residents of the area wrote to the MCG commissioner and demanded the immediate withdrawal of the current water and sewerage bills raised by the civic body as well as its proposal for the installation of new water meters, saying it will be a huge task to be carried out during the pandemic.
This was the first such bill raised by the civic body after it took over the upkeep of the private developer colony.
Sukhbir Singh, vice president of Palam Vihar Residents’ Association, said, “We have been facing the issue of erratic water supply for the past three months and many of us are now forced to rely on tankers for our daily needs.
Now we have been given water bills for the period of 13 months at a flat rate, which is unjustified.
I have received a bill of around Rs 13,440, which is higher than what we used to pay to the developer.” There are more than 10,000 households in the colony and over 70-80% of them have a water meter, the residents have claimed.
AS Gabri, another resident, said, “The proposal to replace the water meter is absurd as it will cause inconvenience to residents, especially senior citizens like us.
Many of the elderly residents stay alone in the colony and they would be unable to go to the MCG office during the pandemic.
I don’t understand the logic behind wasting money and resources by disposing of functional water meters for no fault of the residents.” When contacted, Amit Sandilya, executive engineer of MCG, said, “It is the responsibility of the household owner to install the water meter as per the government norm.
Those consumers who don’t have tested water meters need to replace the same with the ones certified by the MCG.”