Rawalpindi : The Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) this month sent bills to consumers without supplying any kind of water in new connections. The affected consumers of Adiala Road have decided to stage a protest demonstration in front of the Wasa office on Wednesday (today). One of the consumers, Lahore High Court (LHC), Rawalpindi Bench Assistant Registrar, Khawaja Basharat has warned to file a writ
petition against Wasa on
this negligence.
This practice has been done first time in the history of district administration, Rawalpindi. Wasa Sub-Engineer (Adiala) Muhammad Tufail told ‘The News’ that it was a big mistake of concerned officers because Wasa has so far failed to start the supply of water at Adiala Road. “We will start supplying water from (tomorrow) Thursday so how could Wasa send bills to consumers,” he admitted the mistake. Billing will start when the supply of water starts otherwise nobody can send bills to consumers, he clarified.
Wasa has sent bills of Rs1094 to all consumers and warned them if they fail to pay the bill by January 21, 2023, the department will cut off their water connections.
Wasa has completed all formalities to provide supply water here in different areas of Adiala Road including Kehkashan Colony, Munawar Colony, Defense Road, Dhama Syedan, Sanjoli Street, Bank Colony, Hill View Lane, Sadiq Town, Jarahi, and Janjua Town round the clock at the cost of Rs400 million. The concerned department has completed all formalities for over six to eight months while consumers have paid the money of demand notices Rs5000 for residential connection for over four to five months. But, Wasa has failed to release water supply to its consumers.
The thickly populated Adiala Road has been deprived of water supply schemes and underground water is not available in the locality. On the other hand, the tanker mafia has been looting the public with both hands and selling a tanker at RsRs2,500 to Rs3,000 in the winter season and Rs5000 in the summer season.
Earlier, over 5,000 consumers of Adiala Road already left to pay bills because WASA failed to provide supply water to them. WASA is giving water connections to its consumers and continuously taking Rs5000 as demand notice money but not supplying water in it. The bills without services added fuel to fire for the public.
Wasa Assistant Director Malik Javed in a statement assured that they could not issue bills without a water supply. First, we will supply water then we will issue bills.