BENGALURU: The Consumer Commission directed BWSSB to pay Rs 10,000 compensation and Rs 10,000 litigation expenses to a complainant, in addition to refunding the amount collected as water and sanitary charges for a partially completed building. The complainant did not use the building after part of it was demolished for the Metro project by BMRCL in 2012, at Sarakki village in JP Nagar.
Partly allowing the complaint filed by Ajjappa, 3rd Additional Bengaluru Urban District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission comprising president K Shivarama and members KS Raju and Rekha Sayannavar, passed the order to refund the amount collected from the complainant after March 16, 2012, and issue a ‘No Dues’ certificate.
Referring to the statement of BWSSB, the commission said the sewerage connection was disconnected in April 2022 due to non-payment of bills, and inquired why they failed to take action. “There was negligence on the part of BWSSB. The complainant obeyed BWSSB instructions by depositing the amount. The attitude of BWSSB officials amounts to deficiency of service,” the commission noted.
According to the complaint, Ajjappa availed of the water connection to his property at Sarakki and paid water bills till March 16, 2012. Since 2010, part of the building owned by Tyagaraja Cooperative Bank was demolished for the BMRCL project and the remaining building was owned by him and kept vacant.
The water meter provided by BWSSB is missing, and he filed a complaint with jurisdictional police. This was intimated to BWSSB in March 2012 with a request not to raise water bills afresh.