SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Nov 18: While dust on the pending electric bill dispute between DVC and the Jharkhand government is yet to settle, now water charges have appeared as the new bone of contention between the two.
The Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) management has served a bill of Rs. 34 crores to the Jharkhand government against the supply of water from its water reservoir at four places in the state.
A senior officer of DVC Maithon based Manager Reservoir Operation (MRO) department said that DVC headquarters Kolkata has sent a bill to the Jharkhand government for clearing the water charges as the amount has accumulated to over Rs .34 crores.
As per the official record, DVC supplies water for drinking purposes from Maithon to Dhanbad, Chirkunda, Koderma and Hazaribagh districts of Jharkhand. The official sources said that DVC claims Rs 2.5 crores annual water charges from the Jharkhand government at the rate of Rs 1.90 per thousand kilolitres and that the government has not paid the water bill since 2007.
An official of the Drinking Water and Sanitation Department of the Jharkhand government admitted to have received the DVC bills but said that the water charges are disputable. “Jharkhand is also a member of the DVC board of directors and we will raise the issue at the proper platform,” he said.
DVC Maithon dam reservoir is the main source of drinking water to 11 lakh population of Dhanbad city and 48000 population of Chirkunda Nagar Parishad. In the wake of the pending bills, DVC Maithon had stopped water supply in Chirkunda Nagar Parishad for two days in the first week of November. However, on the assurance of Nagar Parishad officials, DVC local management later restored the supply.
A Maithon-based DVC official, however, denied having any dispute on water charges between the Jharkhand government and DVC. He said though Kolkata headquarters deals overall matter, the bill of Maithon dam is cleared.
