PESHAWAR, May 01 (APP): Water Supply and Sanitation Peshawar (WSSP) and district administration Peshawar are going to launch a crackdown against the defaulters of utility bills.
A huge amount about of Rs.1.5 billion is outstanding against the consumers of the company.
According to an official of the company, in the first of the operation, the defaulters would be served with notice and asked to pay their water bills and also clear outstanding against them. Otherwise, action would be taken against them under the KP Local Government Act.
In this connection, on the directives of the Deputy Commissioner (DC) Peshawar, a meeting was held with the Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) in the chair. Besides, officers of the district administration, directors East, and West of the Capital Metropolitan Government, and WSSP attended the meeting and finalized the operation against the defaulters.
The Zonal Offices of WSSP and Directors East & West of the Capital Metropolitan Government Peshawar are issuing notices to defaulters with their signatures.
Besides recovery of the arrears, an awareness campaign is also being initiated.
The services of religious persons like Khateebs and prayer leaders of Masajid are also being utilized.
Meetings with the local elected public representatives are also being held to utilize them for creating awareness among the people to deposit their water bills. WSSP is facing a financial crunch, which is affecting the cleanliness and water supply operations.
The company has over 89000 registered consumers out of which only 21000 are paying bills regularly and the remaining 68,000 are either defaulters or paying partial or sometimes. These defaulters also include those 24000 consumers, who had never paid their water bills while the remaining 44000 consumers are depositing their bills partially.
Currently, WSSP has huge arrears to the tone of Rs.1.48 billion against the defaulters, out of which Rs.700 million are outstanding against those 24000 consumers, who have paid a single penny in head of water bills so far to the company while the remaining Rs.780 million are due against those who pay rarely or pay in installments.
A spokesman of WSSP has said that the purpose of the operation is to bring the company of financial hardships to stand it on its own feet and bring improvement in its services.
