Lokmat News Network
Aurangabad, July 9:
To encourage the citizens to regularise their illegal water connections and attract funds into its exchequer, the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), has announced an amnesty scheme offering an opportunity for the citizens to regularise the connection on payment of just Rs 10,000. Earlier, a sum of Rs 17,000 was collected by AMC to legalise the connection.
As per AMC's record, there are 1.40 lakh legal water connections. However, the civic administration, points out that there would be more than 1.5 lakh illegal water connections in the city. It would take years to severe these connections. Hence the amnesty scheme has been announced to ease the life of the connection-holder and make him a responsible citizen.
The AMC has waived Rs 2,000 and reduced the water tax from Rs 4,050 to Rs 2,050 from 2022-23. To implement the new tax, the AMC administrator A K Pandey has constituted a committee to simplify the process. Besides, the AMC also took a major decision of providing an online payment of property tax and water tax for the citizens, from this year. The assessor and collector of tax Aparna Thete played a vital role in it. Later on, the tedious terms and conditions were scrapped.
The citizens shared bitter experiences of visiting the ward office. They claimed of making several rounds of the office to take a new connection. Later on, the file is moved to the water supply section for approval. The process consumes time. Ironically, the file is okayed only if you grease the palm of officials concerned, the citizens said.
Rearing a white elephant
Every year, the AMC spends Rs 140 crore on the water supply scheme, but the collection of water tax is very low compared to the expenditure. The AMC collected Rs 37.54 crore as water tax last year. The civic authorities said the collection figures would drop again after the announcement of a 50 per cent discount on water tax, from this year.
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Earlier, the AMC was collecting Rs 17,000 as charges to regularise the connection. It includes Rs 5,000 as new connection charges; a one-year water tax and expenses to repair the road damaged to take the connection. Besides, the applicant would also have to grease the palms of a few officers to get approval. Hence, the applicant was forced to shell out Rs 25,000 for taking one legal connection. This was the reason why there is a steep rise in illegal connections in the city, said the sources.