Govt sets deadline of June ending for metering commercial establishments’ water connections

Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, May 24: In order to bring an end to the imprudent use of drinking water in the commercial sector and yield revenue, the Government has set a deadline of June 30 for metering the water connections in all such establishments across the State with a word of caution to the officers of the Public Health Engineering Department that any slackness in this regard would be taken very seriously.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that during the past quite long time one after another announcement was being made from different quarters that all the water connections across the State would be metered on the pattern of several States in the country with the twin objective of checking reckless use of drinking water and generate revenue for the State strictly as per the consumption.
However, no roadmap was prepared to give practical shape to the announcement. In the absence of any guideline there was confusion among the officers of the Public Health Engineering Department vis-à-vis which category of consumer would be taken up in Phase-I, sources said, adding late last year the PHE Department on the directions from the higher-ups procured around 2400 meters (majority of them meant for domestic category) without any clarity about whether all sorts of connections would be taken up for metering in one go or in phased manner.
Thereafter, it was decided to first cover commercial establishments, where imprudent use of drinking water is more as compared to domestic consumers. Accordingly, the installation exercise began but till middle of January only 59 water meters were installed in the commercial establishments across the Jammu region and none in the Kashmir division, sources disclosed.
Taking serious note of the tardy progress in installation of water meters in the commercial establishments, Minister for PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control, Sham Lal Sharma, soon after taking over this ministry asked the Chief Engineers of Kashmir as well as Jammu to gear up the exercise.
According to the official figures available with EXCELSIOR, from January 1, 2013 till May 20, 2013 a total of 874 water meters (excluding 59 installed prior to January 15) have been installed in the commercial establishments which fall under 15 Divisions of the department in Jammu region while as 271 have been installed in Kashmir valley.
Of 874 in Jammu region, 304 were installed in commercial establishments falling under PHE Division City-I Jammu, 250 under PHE Division City-II, 30 were installed by PHE Rural Division Jammu, 35 by PHE Division Kathua, 45 by PHE Division Udhampur, 74 by PHE Division Rajouri, 29 by PHE Division Akhnoor, 33 by PHE Division Doda and 32 by PHE Division Reasi. The PHE Divisions Nowshera, Poonch, Kishtwar and Special Sub-Division Dharmari have not installed even one water meter till date.
As far as Kashmir valley is concerned, 68 water meters have been installed by Water Works Division, Srinagar, 42 by PHE Water Supply Master Plan Division Srinagar, 8 by PHE Rural Water Supply Division Ganderbal, 32 by PHE Division Awantipora, 35 by PHE Division Shopian, 41 by PHE Division Bijbehara, 13 by PHE Division Qazigund, 12 by Special PHE Division Kulgam, 20 by PHE Division Tangmarg. However, several divisions and sub-divisions have not installed even one water meter till date.
“Though metering exercise picked up from January onwards, I have set a deadline of June 30 for installation of meters in all the sanctioned establishments as number of commercial establishments sanctioned for metering runs in thousands. In Jammu region we have identified 3587 such establishments”, Minister for PHE, Sham Lal Sharma said when contacted.
In response to a question, he said, “it has been made clear to the officers that slackness in this regard would be viewed very seriously and departmental action taken against the delinquent officers/officials”, adding “metering is essential as revenue realization is not in consonance with the quantity of water being consumed. At present no time-frame has been fixed for the installation of water meters in domestic sector”.

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