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Journalism of Courage
The Abhay Yojana,introduced by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation in October last year to recover pending water dues amounting to over Rs 826.51 crore,seems to have worked for the civic body to some extent. From October 1 last year to January 30 this year,the civic body has seen a recovery of Rs 301 crore. Monday is the last day of the scheme. Officials called it a significant raise since the collection was Rs 26 crore during April,May and June and Rs 38 crore during July,August and September last year.
The scheme was initially launched for a period of three months but was later extended by a month. Under the scheme,launched on October 1,if any consumer has not cleared his outstanding water bills,they can pay the entire amount and get a rebate of two per cent additional charge per year levied as a penalty for the delayed payment. The BMC recovered Rs 113 crore during the extended period in January alone. The collection during October,November and December last year was Rs 188 crore.
However,the BMC still needs to recover over Rs 500 crore of pending dues. Deputy hydraulic engineer Prakash Kadam said that the scheme has definitely given a boost to the collection despite of the large amount that is still pending. The arrears were Rs 741 crore in December last year and later jumped to Rs 826 crore in September. This is when the BMC was forced to think of a way to reduce the arrears and subsequently launched the Abhay yojana.
We have spent about Rs 60 lakh on advertising the scheme in newspapers over the last three months, said Kadam.
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