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RTI

 Issues - Is Your Water Meter Working?

By S.R. venkatram

Is your water meter working? If so, you are lucky. There are 2,672 faulty meters in just one subdivision-AEES-4 in Basavanagudi. And in the past 12 months they have been able to replace only 368 with new meters. How did I get this information? Of course, under RTI Act. At this rate it will take 7 long years to clear the backlogs provided there are no more faulty meters during the period!!

How do BWSSB charge if you have a faulty meter? They take the average of your previous six month’s consumption and continue to charge this rate till you get a new meter. Do you think that BWSSB will continue to supply the same quantity of water till your meter is replaced, when they know for certain that due to new buildings coming up every day along your pipe line, water pressure is decreasing day by day? Not just that in my case. I live in an apartment and we have one common meter for all the flats. For the past 10 months, BWSSB is charging us Rs.8138/- per month on the plea that our meter was faulty. To my utter astonishment, I noticed that the meter is working, and when I calculated with the latest reading, I noticed that my average consumption is about 25% less. My sump tanks do not get filled up due to low pressure now. I have now taken up the issue with the authorities under RTI Act and asked them to explain how they have declared my meter as “faulty”.

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