Surat slaps Rs 47 crore water bills on mills

The Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) has served supplementary bills of Rs 47.30 crore to 124 units, mainly textile dyeing and printing mills, in the Pandesara GIDC estate of Surat in connection with the alleged water theft.

The bills were issued by the municipal commissioner Gangaram Aloria on Wednesday after taking legal opinion.

The corporation has already filed a caveat in the Gujarat High Court in this regard.

Many textile units of Surat which have their mills in the Pandesara GIDC estate, one of the biggest and oldest estates of its kind, have been served with the bills.

The corporation has said the textile units face disconnection of water supply and attachment of their mills if the bills are not paid within 15 days.

Aloria said the agreement that the corporation had entered into with these Pandesara-based units for supply of water was binding on both the parties until January 15, 2004.

Each industrial unit had furnished information on their daily average use of water when the agreement was signed.

However, in the past five years, many of these units were using much less water than their projected estimates as they used to procure water by indulging in water theft, the corporation alleged.

"We are seeking 65 per cent of the charges from all such units which have shown less consumption in the past five years," Aloria said.

In all, 124 units have been served the supplementary bills for use of water between September 1, 1999, to November 30, 2003.

These units have water connections through one to eight inches pipelines.

The supplementary bills and the notices seeking payment within 15 days have been dispatched to all the units on Wednesday evening.

Among the prominent mills, Parag Prints has been asked to pay up Rs 1.46 crore, Pashupati Prints Rs 1.51 crore, Rajlaxmi Prints Rs 1.50 crore, Paras Silk Mills Rs 1.03 crore and Gupta Textiles Rs 2.18 crore.

Citurgia Bio Chemicals, a Bombay Dyeing Group company which was producing citric acid at its Pandesara plant and closed down a couple of months back, has also been issued bills for Rs 25.68 lakh.