Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

KWA settles bill arrears case

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Impelled by an intervention by Minister for Water Resources N.K. Premachandran, the Kerala Water Authority on Wednesday ‘settled’ the water bill arrears of Sethukutty Amma, 74, a resident of Rishimangalam who had aired her grievances at the Authority’s revenue adalat held on November 25.

The bill arrears — for the connection taken in 1989 in the name of Sethukutty Amma’s daughter S. Sathi — was settled on Wednesday for Rs.8,560. This can be paid in ten instalments. The old connection PTT / 298/S a special casual connection taken while Sathi was constructing her house was converted to a new domestic connection PTT 15910/D. As per Mr. Premachandran’s instructions, engineers of the KWA went to Sethukutty Amma’s residence to hand over the documents of the new connection.

The special casual connection taken on February 25, 1989 had never been converted to a domestic connection; Ms. Sathi had also not given any document to the KWA showing proof of residence in that house. Over the years the bill arrears — calculated at non-domestic rates — had climbed to Rs.86,997.

On April 5, 2006 Ms. Sathi had paid Rs.10,000 to the KWA. Now, when the arrears was settled by converting her connection to a domestic one it was deemed that she had been living in her house from February 24, 1990. The fine and penal interest on the arrears was fully waived.

When Sethukutty Amma came to the KWA adalat, she had no documents and requested Mr. Premachandran to help her in some manner. The Minister consulted KWA officials who said that the issue could be settled if she could produce her TC and any document to show that she had been living in her house from a particular date.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu