Jaipur: The new directive of the Public Health and Engineering Department (PHED) secretary Samit Sharma to prepare a policy whereby PHED would restore a road cut to provide new water connections, may either eradicate an age-old nexus completely or might increase the scope of the nexus to a great level.
A section of PHED engineers claimed that the department should keep this nexus in mind, if any such policy is made.
Officials had claimed, a consumer needs to pay an amount for road cut to the concerned civic body, JDA or JMC Greater or Heritage in case of Jaipur. But plumbers listed in the PHED panel often give offers to the consumers to pay a one-time amount directly to them. Under this system a consumer gets the connection bypassing the payment to be made to the local civil body.
The plumbers had nexus with PHED as well as civic body officials who overlooked such road cuts done by the plumbers to provide water connection.
“This is the reason behind several minor road cuts done for the sake of providing PHED water that remain unattended. Officially, civic bodies don’t have any records of such road cuts. Now that PHED wants to restore the road cuts of its own, the department should accept the fees for road cuts and make road cut receipts mandatory for each and every case,” said a PHED engineer.
A senior engineer from JMC Greater clarified that for a concrete road, the civic body charges Rs 4,100 (excluding taxes), to cut one metre of the road. The civic body loses lakhs of revenues per year because of this nexus. The plumbers simply take the money from the consumer and deposit a forge receipt.
“In my case the local JEN was supposed to come to my house for a site inspection. Instead, a plumber came to my house from nowhere and stated he was sent by the local PHED office. He had offered me a package of Rs 5,000 for the entire connection process. Although many of our neighbours followed this route, thinking it illegal, I ended up paying around Rs 8,000 to get the connection,” said a consumer who did not want to be quoted.
A section of PHED engineers claimed that the department should keep this nexus in mind, if any such policy is made.
Officials had claimed, a consumer needs to pay an amount for road cut to the concerned civic body, JDA or JMC Greater or Heritage in case of Jaipur. But plumbers listed in the PHED panel often give offers to the consumers to pay a one-time amount directly to them. Under this system a consumer gets the connection bypassing the payment to be made to the local civil body.
The plumbers had nexus with PHED as well as civic body officials who overlooked such road cuts done by the plumbers to provide water connection.
“This is the reason behind several minor road cuts done for the sake of providing PHED water that remain unattended. Officially, civic bodies don’t have any records of such road cuts. Now that PHED wants to restore the road cuts of its own, the department should accept the fees for road cuts and make road cut receipts mandatory for each and every case,” said a PHED engineer.
A senior engineer from JMC Greater clarified that for a concrete road, the civic body charges Rs 4,100 (excluding taxes), to cut one metre of the road. The civic body loses lakhs of revenues per year because of this nexus. The plumbers simply take the money from the consumer and deposit a forge receipt.
“In my case the local JEN was supposed to come to my house for a site inspection. Instead, a plumber came to my house from nowhere and stated he was sent by the local PHED office. He had offered me a package of Rs 5,000 for the entire connection process. Although many of our neighbours followed this route, thinking it illegal, I ended up paying around Rs 8,000 to get the connection,” said a consumer who did not want to be quoted.