Drinking water increased charges from June onwards
The increased charges for drinking water consumption will take effect in June. The Coimbatore Corporation Council managed to pass a resolution on this in the face of resistance from some Opposition parties such as the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India (CPI), All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK).The increase was to have taken effect on January 1. According to Corporation sources, it was put off to elicit more views from the public. The civic body had said that it had received till January 1 very few views that were opposed to the hike. Some more time was then given to the public to react. Concluding that there was very little resistance and that the majority of the people in the city understood the need for the hike to improve the Corporation’s revenue, the civic body moved the resolution in the Council.P. Rajkumar of the AIADMK, C. Padmanabhan of the CPI (M) and K. Purshothaman of the CPI were among the leaders of the parties in the Council who led the protest against the hike. Members of these parties staged a walkout when they found that the Congress and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) were firm on increasing the charges.The DMK and Congress defended the increase saying that it was not high.They pointed out that the percentage of hike was even reduced after objections from the Opposition.But, there was no case for withdrawing the hike totally because the Corporation was in need of funds to make water supply viable.
