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Millions in Unpaid Water Bills in Kandy
Mayor Initiates Action Against Defaulters
A
recent Kandy Municipal Council (KMC) report tabled at a Council
meeting reveals that water consumers owe Rs. 72 million in unpaid
water bills to the KMC. The main defaulters are state institutions
and relatively big private business establishments. Mayor Aluvihare
after assuming office earlier this year has launched a program
to collect the overdue money. It appears that he has had limited
success.
The scale of the default and the identity of the defaulters
came to light in an answer to a question that the KMC Leader
of the Opposition Thilina Tennakoon raised in the Council. There
are nine defaulters each with unpaid bills exceeding Rs 1.0m.
These include Peradeniya Hospital (Rs. 5.7m), Kandy Hospital
(Rs. 4.8m), St. Anthony's Old Boys Association - OBA (Rs. 4.1m),
Gangawata Korale Pradesheeya Sabha (Rs. 4.1m), Army Signals
School (Rs. 3.9m), a private contractor who completed a building
for a major Kandy temple (Rs 2.9m), Office of the Director of
Health Services (Rs. 2.1m), Official Residence of the Diyawadana
Nilame (Rs. 1.6m), and the Sinha Regiment (Rs 1.2m). There are
five others Girls' High School (Rs. 949,000), Court Complex
(Rs. 812,000), The Queen's Hotel (Rs. 812,000), a private business
establishment on Peradeniya Road (Rs. 567,000) and the Kandy
Railway Station (Rs. 503,000) - that have unpaid bills exceeding
half of a million rupees.
The Report also notes that there are eighty five others, mostly
Kandy businessmen, who have to pay more than Rs 100,000 each.
According to KMC sources many businessmen let unpaid water bills
accumulate and then appeal to the KMC to give them "relief"
by way of a reduction.
The KMC provides free water only for regular use in schools
and places of religious worship. Independent investigation done
by The Kandy News revealed that the St. Anthony's school authorities
have tapped the OBA room water connection for the school swimming
pool and hostel. This explains the unpaid bill of Rs 4.1m. We
also found that a private contractor who used water for construction
of a temple building has simply not paid his Rs 2.9m water bill.
The previous Diyawadana Nilame apparently took a water connection
to bathe elephants in the garden of his official residence.
The unpaid water bill of Rs 1.6m is for water used for that
purpose The Girls' High School has defaulted on water bills
for the school swimming pool. The Queen's Hotel and the business
establishment on Peradeniya Road are locked in disputes with
the KMC over their respective water bills. Both are refusing
to pay until the dispute is resolved.
Water Engineer Mr. P B Abeykoon says that until recently the
total water bills in arrears stood at staggering Rs 72m. But
through the effort of mayor L B Aluvihare a portion of it has
been recovered reducing the total to Rs 65m. After the KMC started
to announce in public the names of the defaulters some have
been persuaded to settle their bills to avoid embarrassment,
he said.
Mayor Aluvihare said that the KMC has sent a "red bill"
to the defaulters and if the arrears were not settled within
one week the water supply would be disconnected. We have opened
negotiations with the state institutions in default, he said.
Some have given the excuse that they have no provisions in the
budget to pay for water while others have made an effort to
pay. For example, Gangawata Korale Pradesheeya Sabha paid Rs
4.5m and agreed to pay the balance in installments of Rs 500,000.
But some public institutions have threatened to bring the workers
out on strike, the Mayor added.
(The Kandy News Senior Staff Reporter Sarath
Doolwela contributed to this report.)
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A
Small Minority Won't be Allowed to Halt Development
- Minister Amunugama
A
small minority of people who have no conception of development
for the benefit of the broader community are opposed to the
Kandy sewerage purification plant project. We shall ignore these
misguided individuals and go ahead with the construction of
the plant said Minister of Home Affair Sarath Amunugama when
he addressed a public meeting recently in Gatambe to inaugurate
the project. The Minister of Urban Development Mr. Dinesh Gunawardena
was the chief guest at the function.
The Japanese government is providing Rs 8,200m for the project.
The aid was originally offered in 1998 but the project was delayed
because the government found it difficult to find a suitable
location for the plant. There were public protests against every
location that was proposed. Finally the government allocated
a block of land in Gatambe near the Central Agricultural Research
Station for the plant.
Sewerage from the Kandy city covering 724 hectares will be pumped
to the facility for purification and release to the Mahaweli
river. In the first stage the project will cover about 18,500
residents plus transient population in an area covering 271h.
In the second stage another 31,000 residents plus transient
population in an area of about 453h will be brought into the
project.
Project Director Mr. Sarath Gamini told The Kandy news that
the Gatambe residents are assured of a safe and environment-friendly
facility. Once commissioned it will help improve the quality
of Mahaweli water that is currently heavily polluted by the
discharge of raw sewerage from hospitals, hotels, industries,
businesses and residences mainly to the Meda Ela and the Kandy
Lake. This will also help ensure the supply of cleaner water
to the Kandy water supply scheme that has intakes in Gatambe
and Katugastota.
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Kandy
Car Park Crisis Threatens to Debilitate KMC
The Kandy Car Park and car parking crisis still remain unresolved
with the dispute between the KMC and the contractor Property
Finance and Investment (Private) Ltd. is steadily moving towards
a complicated legal dispute and court battle. Municipal Commissioner
Mrs. K H A Meegasmulla in a memorandum to Mayor L B Aluvihare
has warned that the Council would face a serious financial crisis
unless the matter is resolved immediately. Property developer
Thusitha Wijesena who is building the massive Kandy Centre in
Dalada Veediya owns the contracting company.
The issue about the car park in a nutshell is as follows. The
contractor signed an agreement with the KMC to pay the latter
a monthly rent of Rs 2.8m. In return the KMC allowed the contractor
to collect parking fees from the multi storey car park as well
as from street parking. A large number of Kandy businessmen
and others protested that the street parking fees were too high
and that parking in the built car park was inconvenient. These
motorists refuse to pay street parking fees and continue to
park wherever they want. The contactor, who claims that he was
losing money, has over a nine month period paid only a total
of Rs 3.9m to the KMC. He refuses to pay the balance money claiming
that the KMC has failed to hold up its part of the contract
and get the police to enforce the parking fee.
Senior KMC officials that spoke to The Kandy News on condition
of anonymity are not very sympathetic to the contractor. They
argue that the contractor is violating conditions of the contract
example: renting the car park for exhibitions - and that he
should be compelled to comply with his obligations to the KMC.
Just now the KMC has to repay the Asian Development Bank loan
on the car park using general revenue and that is debilitating
the normal services that the Council provides, officials argue.
The contractor in the meantime has informed the KMC thorough
his lawyers that legal action would be taken against the KMC
for failing to enforce the law to collect street parking fees.
As a solution the KMC passed a resolution at one of its recent
to reduce the street parking fee as well as the monthly lease
payment due from contractor and sent it to the Minster of Local
Government for approval. The Minster rejected the proposal.
The Central Province Chief Minister Sarath Ekanayake then appointed
the Central Province Commissioner of Local Government Mr. R
M D B Meegasmulla to inquire into the problem and propose a
solution. He recommended that street parking receipts be issued
under the authority of the Kandy Municipal Commissioner so that
violators could be prosecuted under the law. This proposal was
first unanimously rejected at a meeting of the Council. It apparently
did not want to take on what it believed was an unnecessary
burden partly because the Mayor and Council cannot command the
police to act on it. The Mayor has to depend on the goodwill
of the police to help the Council enforce municipal laws and
regulations. The contracting company also rejected the proposal
of the inquiring officer on the grounds that it did not want
to lose control over the collection of revenue due to the company.
At this point Mayor Aluvihare summoned another meeting for August
14, 2006 to discuss the problem. In response the Municipal Commissioner
Mrs. K H A Meegasmulla wrote a memo to the mayor pointing out
that the matter had been discussed ad nauseum and the facts
were already well known. She stated that she would not attend
a meeting that was basically redundant. In her view the bottom
line was the contractor was not paying and the KMC was losing
money. In her memo she also supported the proposal of the inquiring
officer Mr. Meegasmulla to charge street parking fees under
the authority of the Municipal Commissioner.
Mayor Aluvihare and the ruling UNP are now willing to resurrect
the Meegasmulla formula to enforce street parking under the
authority of the KMC. But there is one new glitch. According
to the law if the Council wishes to pass a proposal that it
unanimously rejected within the previous six months, it must
have the support of two-thirds of its members. The UNP does
not have that number and the opposition that sees an opportunity
to undermine the Aluvihare administration is refusing to support.
An Opposition spokesperson told The Kandy news that the real
solution is for the KMC to take legal action against the contractor.
The Mayor speaking to The Kandy News said that he had the authority
to issue a parking fee ticket with the official KMC seal and
that he would do it soon. The contractor had indicated that
he would abide by such a scheme but wants the KMC to give him
a reduction on past dues on the lease payment. The opposition
in KMC does not want to accede to that request. The Mayor plans
to request the Chief Minister Sarath Ekanayake to appoint an
arbitrator to resolve the issue.
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News
Around Kandy
NEWS
AROUND KANDY
by Ayesha Imbuldeniya Wijeyeratne
