GOURI SATYA has an interesting story in today's Business Standard which shows that less than half the water consumers in Mysore foot the entire cost of water supply in the City and bear the tax burden.
According to a reply furnished by the Mysore City Corporation to the Karnataka Consumer Forum, Mysore has 1,12,733 household and 6,862 commercial water connections, of whom only 50,000 are fitted with meters.
Take a look:
Nodi Swami ! Naviradu heege !
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The Right to Information Act has come handy for a local NGO to bring into focus the poor management of the MCC’s tax resources. According to the reply furnished by the MCC to the Karnataka Consumer Forum, Mysore, has 1,12,733 household and 6,862 commercial water connections, of whom only 50,000 are fitted with meters.
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Towards understanding the depth of corruption in Mysore.
These are all on the records side. What’s going on in the real world? How do we check how many connections, meters and standardized meters are actually there? Population of Mysore itself is ~900K. The household connection figure implies that each household in Mysore has approximately 9 people. That is appa + amma + kirtigobbamaga + aartigobbamagalu + ajja + ajji + 3. (of course there are hostels but I doubt that will skew the numbers too much) I know of not one house in Mysore that does not have water connection and hardly any households that have 9 people in it.
One estimate of number of water connections is the corresponding number of electricity connections in the city, but this again is a record based verification. However, this might reveal some more can of worms which is good. Another estimate is the actual number of households compare that to the 1,12,733 figure. We could look at census records for each mohalla. How many units are there, how many residents are in each unit. I bet there is no cross-verification of any records of any kind.
Now that we understand the depth of corruption in the resource, what about the corruption on the authority side?
Important first step will be to take the current concerned authorities from commisnarru to attendru to task but this morass did not set in yesterday or in the current term. what about those who lorded over in the past years? They did all this kachda and are now soaking in the salubrious sun.
Even when caught, the law only holds back some increments-that’s kallepuri for a person who makes more in gimbala than in sambala. Suspension really only means a vacation with 10% pay cut, a nice excuse to enjoy the money made. our man knows the day the ends he’s going to bounce back with a vengeance. Suspension/cancellation of pension benefits- are you kidding me? That’s only a loss of evening club money. More over it only motivates extra effort while in tenure to make up for the loss. The law is toothless and almost encourages this corruption. What?, did you say shame? What is that? Saar, only shame is in un-glamour saar. Imagine working in govt aapisu not driving scootru, biku caru to office or wearing goglesu and rado watchu!! Shudder!!!!
Also, as culpable as the MCC is, this also shows that half the population of Mysore is morally and ethically corrupt. This is not the hapless janate that has to bribe authorities to get water connection or an earnest meter installed, this is corrupt, calculated, unscrupulous lot that is bribing the authorities to look the other way while they enjoy the rape of the system. There is really no distinction between them and mafia and goondas. After all, they are unethically drawing from a resource for which earnest people have given sweat and even blood just to gain meager access to. Is’nt this a mockery of raithas who are struggling for water of those who commit suicides?
I could throw stones at the houses of the corrupt officials but does Mysore have enough stones to take care of this corrupt lot? not only do they thrive on the interest payed by legitimate users, they are the children of the authorities that sell their ethical bodies. We have appropriate words for such people in kannada.
This is just water what about electricity, registration, khaata, property tax, etc etc….the whole can of worms.