BENGALURU: The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) recovered nearly Rs 19.35 crore of its pending water bills from defaulters in the city over the past five years, after notices were issued by the Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force (BMTF) and FIRs filed under the BWSSB Act. Among those who paid up their bills is Small Scale Industries and Municipal Administration Minister MTB Nagaraj and his family members, said a government source.
Additional Director General of Police, BMTF, K Ramachandra Rao told TNIE that as per data available with BMTF, a total of Rs 19,34,28,118 had been paid by defaulters to the Water Board in five years, from 2018 to 2022. Following submission of the list of defaulters by BWSSB, the Task Force filed 347 non-cognizable reports and issued individual notices to households, that helped realise Rs 14,04,85,187 from them. In addition, FIRs were booked against 204 families, and a sum of Rs 5,29,52,931 was collected from them.
“The fines collected from the public include two kinds of complaints -- unauthorised water connections and default in payment of bills,” Rao added. A government source said water bill defaulters included minister Nagaraj and his family members. “Notices were issued to Nagaraj, his brother N Pillappa and a few relatives recently, as their unpaid bills over a few years ran into lakhs of rupees. The minister recently settled all bills,” the source said.
Nagaraj told TNIE, “I pay taxes running into many crores annually. I have settled all my pending water bills.” His accountant Vidya Prakash said, “The water bills were not paid by residents of a building belonging to the minister, located in Garudacharpalya. It is now operated by a tenant as a paying guest accommodation for men. They used to get water from the borewell, and finally got BWSSB water in 2019. I think they had not paid bills since then. It roughly came to Rs 1,30,000 and has been settled.”
Another property belonging to the minister is a hospital near Phoenix Marketcity in Mahadevapura. “The minister’s son-in-law runs an orthopaedic hospital there. It was built in 2020. The water bills were pending there too, and have been settled,” Prakash said. BWSSB officials were evasive when questioned about arrears involving the minister. Chairman N Jayaram did not respond to this reporter’s repeated calls, while other officials remained tight-lipped, from engineer-in-chief N Suresh to local engineers in Mahadevapura.