Srinagar, May 13: An amount of Rs 207 crore is outstanding as water tax against several government departments in PHE division Sopore, Bandipora, Baramulla, and Srinagar divisions.
As per the official document, Rs 1.98 lakh is outstanding against several government departments Rs 287.54 lakh is outstanding against private individual households in the Bandipora district.
The department has, however, not mentioned the steps taken for the recovery of the outstanding amount from the defaulters.
The official documents reveal that an amount of 1.66 crore is outstanding as water tax against private individuals while an amount of Rs 13 lakhs is outstanding against several government departments in district Baramulla.
The information was sought from concerned Executive Engineers by M M Shuja through the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
As per the official documents, an amount of Rs 18.82 crores is outstanding against different government departments and private individuals in the Srinagar district.
Meanwhile, the official documents have further revealed that no specific scheme has been taken up by the department for the replacement of old rusted, and broken water pipes during 2020, 2021, and 2022 in the Srinagar and Sopore PHE divisions.
“However old and new schemes are maintained under annual stage contracts,” the official document reads.
Also, the official documents assessed from the office of Chief Engineer PHE department Kashmir have revealed that the department has around 101 water tankers available while no new vehicle has been purchased in the last three years.
As per the official documents, the hydraulic PHE division Bandipora has taken up the work on 65 schemes under Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) out of which 14 schemes are new and 15 are retrofitting.
The official documents have also revealed that execution of work in the Sopore PHE division has been started on 69 schemes under different patterns of funding while none of the schemes has been completed as of date.