A feud seems to be on between the Thrikkakara municipality and the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) over the total number of connections for public taps in the municipality and the bills due in that regard.
The KWA has slapped the municipality with pending dues in excess of ₹75 lakh, which the latter has contested and kept in abeyance over the continuing conflict over the number of public tap connections. While the KWA puts the number at 411, the municipality counters that the numbers come just a fraction of it to 175.
“The KWA has been charging us in excess of ₹21,000 a year for a public tap connection for the last several years. Since, by our estimates, the number of public taps is way less than those that have been assessed by the KWA, it appears that we have been paying for non-existent taps. We will not clear the dues unless the anomaly is fixed through a joint inspection by municipal and KWA officials,” said P.M. Younus, municipal vice chairman and chairman of the finance standing committee of the municipality.
