------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Documented by Goa Desc Resource Centre Ph:2252660 Website: www.goadesc.org Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Press Clippings on the web: http://www.goadesc.org/mem/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chorao, Merces residents protest against irregular water supply ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Highly-agitated slogan-shouting citizens from Chorao and Merces today marched to the public works department - water supply division, at St Inez, here, to complain about severe hardships in water and threatened to file individual cases against the engineers in the consumer redressal forums set up under the Consumer Protection Act.
The release of water after midnight, excess billing due to faulty meters, levy of meter-rent despite consumers having purchased these meters themselves and worst of all, the apathy of PWD officials towards consumers' long-time grievances had the residents of Chorao in a rage.
Residents of Merces also complained of supply of water at odd hours of the night, the PWD's neglect of water-leakages causing wastage and the PWD's failure to check the quality of water for drinking.
Housewives with children and their menfolk in tow, kept up a long bout of strident slogan-shouting outside the PWD office as a delegation of these two villages, under the umbrella of their respective "Civic and Consumer Forums," handed their representations to the PWD officials. In the absence of the executive engineer, Mr S J N Namshikar, his assistant engineer, Mr K Gopalan, came in for a sever tongue-lashing from irate citizens.
"As an assistant engineer, it is your duty to conduct meetings with consumers and find out their problems. There has been no such meeting for the last 25 years. You are only collecting money from consumers and making the elderly citizens dance when they have problems. Henceforth don't take consumers for granted."
The above charges apart, there were some pointed queries. Are you attending gram sabhas to find out the villagers' problems? Have you read your Citizen's Charter and the Consumer Protection Act? Are you placing stones over leaking pipelines to hide it? Have you ever taken samples of water from the pipeline to check its potability? Do you have map of your pipelines? There was also a singular threat: We will book cases against individual engineers under the Consumer Protection Act.
Ms Esperance Rodrigues, the convenor of the Chorao Civic and Consumer Forum, in her memo to the PWD says that these deficiencies in water supply exist because of "lack of contact by the senior officers of the PWD with consumers of Chorao".
While Ms Rodrigues' problem appears to be technical, Mr Sebastiao Fernandes, a senior citizen from Merces, seems to be facing an administrative problem with the PWD. His memo to the PWD dated May 14, 2003, with the subject, 'Replacement of water meter' reads thus: "I request you to refer your letter dated September 6, 2002, wherein you had accepted your lapse in billing and given me credit. It may be noted that the meter fixed is my private meter and hence meter rent should not be charged." Till date, his problem is not solved.
Mr Roland Martins, the co-ordinator of the civic and consumer forums, made a strong plea for more accountability and more sensitivity on the part of the PWD engineers towards consumer grievances.
Signifying a new, proactive awareness among consumers, a banner read: PWD Consumers, Don't Agonise. Organise, fight against water mismanagement. Among the various slogans shouted, one was, 'We don't want water at night, give us water by day.' Another was, 'Sodchena re sodchena, Jiklea bogor sodchena' which translates to 'We will not leave you in peace until we win this battle'. ------------------------------------------------ The Navhind Times 7/4/04 page 3 ------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- GOA CIVIC AND CONSUMER ACTION NETWORK --------------------------------------------------------------------------- an initiative of GOA DESC RESOURCE CENTRE to promote civic and consumer rights in Goa --------------------------------------------------------------------------- GOACAN Post Box 78 Mapusa, Goa 403 507 Tel: 2252660 mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] website: www.goacan.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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