Meet BWSSB engineers every month, corporators told

BANGALORE: Mayor S K Nataraj announced on Thursday that all new areas in the city will get four borewells and core areas will get two as a measure to tide over the water crisis in several parts of the city.
"All erring officials and those colluding with people going in for unauthorized or illegal water or sanitary connections will be punished. Regular meetings at ward-level involving the engineering staff concerned and corporators and the general public should be held," Nataraj said he said in his reply to a discussion on the water crisis.
Further, he insisted on regular meetings of corporators and AEEs and EEs."Every month, there should be a ward-level meeting with the AEEs and one at the EE level once every three months. This should ensure sorting out all immediate water and sanitary woes of the residents," he said.
BWSSB chairperson P B Ramamurthy ensured a comprehensive look into all the drinking water and sanitary issues across every ward put forth by the corporators during this two-day meeting. "Specific complaints against AEEs and EEs will be strictly dealt with. However, please don't get back on your word saying don't transfer or fire them, once action is taken," Ramamurthy told councillors.
Further, he also requested their co-operation in joining hands with the board in implementing the rainwater harvesting rule across their wards and also helping them identify the unauthorized connections. "With the recent implementation of the BWSSB Act, we will now initiate action against the offenders under the new Section 108 (A) and 108 (B) for both the individuals and the colluding officials. If required, we might also need your co-operation in being witness or for verification process," he added.
Interestingly, not many corporators seemed impressed by this, though a majority of them had complained about rampant illegal connections in their ward.
Reacting to other common complaints of inadequate jetting machines and staff, Ramamurthy said:
purchasing hi-pressure combo jetting machines apart, the board will also be recruiting 195 new valvemen and 111 AEEs in the next 15 days.
"The re-activation of old borewells will begin with the new areas and will be executed division-wise. A concrete plan will be finalized within the next two days" he said.