Consumers' union want water metres removed

Aizawl, Apr 14 (UNI) Mizoram Consumers' Union (MCU) has urged the Mizoram government to remove all the water metres in the city as the system has increased the burden on the consumers.

The MCU, in its memorandum to Chief Minister Zoram Thanga and the Public Health Engineer(PHE) Minister, today cited several reasons why water metres should be removed in the interest of the public.

Many water metres are not functioning properly since their installation four years back while a number of metres have been stolen or broken. As a result, water bills had risen to as much as Rs 200 from Rs 100, MCU alleged in its memorandum.

MCU also stated it was the duty of the department to replace any damaged water metre free of cost since the consumer paid the rent for water metre monthly and the water metres were not available in the open market also.

Even as the department is planning to install new water metres at the cost of Rs 2,000 per metre, MCU is strongly opposed to the same.

Even if metre system was used, let it be used by high users such as hospitals, VIPs, institutions and hotels, the MCU said.

MCU also pointed out that water system had not been imposed on the general public even in those States which had plenty of water sources and Mizoram was the only State in the Northeast to use the metre system.

When the Mizoram government was about to introduce the system four years back, the consumers' union had insisted that if metre system was to be applied, the water pipeline was supposed to be full of water twenty-four by seven as demanded by the Standards of Weights and Measures Act. The Rules stated that if water supply was disrupted the metre reading can be tampered by air pressure, MCU said.

UNI ZS LL RC BST1726