BENGALURU: The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) has transferred six of its staffers holding them responsible for not taking efforts to reduce Unaccounted For Water (UFW) losses across the city. The Water supply department suffers enormous losses on account of unbilled water as 38 per cent of Cauvery water utilised in the city is unaccounted for.
The move follows a three-day review meet undertaken in the city. Engineer-in-Chief (EIC) Kemparamaiah told The New Indian Express,“We have transferred a Junior Engineer, a Water Inspector, two meter readers and two helpers during our Demand Collection Balance meet held from December 5 to 7. After assessing the UFW levels across every area, we feel they have not taken any pro-active steps to curb our losses.”
Junior engineer T Devaraj has been transferred from Bahubali Nagar to Yelahanka, Water Inspector Nataraja Murthy from Peenya-Dasarahalli to Byrasandra. Meter reader Venkatesh has been transferred from RT Nagar to MES Layout, while his counterpart there, K Raja, has been posted at RT Nagar.
Helper Srinivasan has been posted from Peenya-Dasarahalli to Hebbal while his counterpart there, Siddaraju, has been posted at Peenya-Dasarahalli. An outsourcing agency was also asked to replace six helpers. “We are going all out to reduce the UFW levels as it will have a direct impact on boosting our revenue,” the EIC said. During November, the water supply board broke all its monthly revenue records. “We had a revenue of `110.32 crore, our highest income ever,” Kemparamaiah added.
Consultant finalised
The water supply board has finalised the consultant for the Cauvery Water Supply Scheme Stage V. An agreement was inked on Tuesday at Cauvery Bhavan between the BWSSB Chairman Tushar Girinath and representatives of ONTB, a consortium of four companies. “The contract was signed for around Rs 181 crore. The consultancy will be for a five-year period up to 2023, when the project is expected to wind up,” said BWSSB Chairman Tushar Girinath.