Ward office asked to pay Rs 3 for every water connection form sold since 2012

The BMC has asked the M-East (Chembur) ward office's water department to pay Rs 3 for every water connection form they have sold since 2012, after they neglected a circular that had instructed the department to increase the price of forms.

In the last two years, the ward office has sold close to 9,000 forms for Rs 12, instead of Rs 15. The civic body's audit department has issued a notice asking it to recover the balance of Rs 30,000. In 2012, the chief accountant had asked every department to increase the rate of services provided by them.

The ward office has sold more than 9,000 forms since then, and therefore, the BMC has lost around Rs 30,000 in revenue. During auditing, the accountant found discrepancies and on August 11, the department sent a notice to the ward asking it to recover the amount. The water department has now asked its four licence holders to pay the difference, as most of these forms are sold by them.

"I've received a recovery notice from the BMC of Rs 9,000, which is wrong. This is entirely the department's mistake. We had no knowledge about the increase in the cost of the form," said a plumber who is a licence holder, on the condition of anonymity. Another licensee has been told to pay Rs 10,000 after the query was raised by the audit department.

"It was the mistake of the clerk who sold the form for Rs 12, instead of Rs 15 and we have issued a notice to the clerk and licence holders. After recovering money from the plumbers, if there is any balance left, it would be collected from the clerk," said Ranjeet Chauhan, assistant engineer from the water department of the ward.