Daijiworld Media Network – Mangaluru (MS)

Mangaluru, Jul 19: State BJP government gave conditional approval to the domestic water rate reduction proposal sent by Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) on Monday July 18.

The revised tariff will be applicable only to limits of the MCC. It will be in implementation for one year from August 1. The MCC has to submit a fresh proposal after one year to the state government and get approval. This is mentioned in the order of the government.

The MCC has revised the water tariff on December 3, 2018. However, at that time the rate of water used for commercial and building construction was increased and the domestic tariff was kept at the same rate.

As the water tariff was not increased for 10 years in the city, the same was done in June 2019 as per the government guidelines. It was decided to increase the minimum rate to Rs 174 for consumers who use 20,000 litres of water every month. Public criticised this move.

Later, to pacify the public, a decision was taken in May 2020 in the general body of the meeting to reduce the rate from Rs 174 to Rs 140. However, this was not approved by the urban development department.

In the meeting that was presided over by the secretary of urban development department in February 2022, a decision was taken for city corporations to submit proposals for rate revision without incurring loss to the corporation.

Accordingly, MCC took decision to revise the rate to Rs 100 for consumers who use water up to 20,000 litres per month. The MCC commissioner, who made the revised rate list ready, had sent the same to the director of civic administration director on June 6. This was approved by the state government on Monday July 18.

For consumers who use up to 20,000 litres of water, the minimum rate is reduced by Rs 74, while for those who use up to maximum 70,000 litres there will be a reduction of Rs 29 in the minimum tariff. Those who use 1.5 lac litres per month have to pay Rs 50 more than earlier.

Mayor Premananda Shetty thanked chief minister Basavaraj Bommai, urban development minister Bairati Basavaraju and MLA Vedavyas Kamath for giving the approval.