COMMENTS

Dr Shenoy had in turn forwarded the blog to other members for their comments, and he forwarded to me the following response from Mr Chandra Prakash

Dear Dr.Bhamy Shenoy,

Since you marked a copy to me i am giving my views.

First, some brands in the country like L&T, and TATA are institution of integrity and patriotism. We are lucky to have such institutions in a highly selfish and corrupt country that is India. Hence length of existence of JUSCO need not be a matter of concern.

Second, ADB's track record, in getting infrastructure projects out of its own loaned funds, is nothing much to be happy about. Remember our ADB funded road works in the city during 80's and 90's? Therefore, its report on jusco (i dont know the contents) should not be criteria to judge JUSCO's competence in completing mysore project.

Third, mysore may be one  among a very very few cities of the world which is bestowed with such a huge potential for drinking water. Two rivers Cauvery and Kapila are encircling the outer periphery of mysore within a distance of 30-40 kilometers. The need is only to tap these two sources and supply potable water. JUSCO should be capable of doing the needful, but it may need 3-5 years.

Fourth, coming to public relations - well mysore is peculiarly placed in this regard. One cannot convince a group of people who are either pampered (earlier by the Maharajas and now by the corrupt and castiest politicians) or/and  irresponsible (since they dont intend to pay for the services, see the number of meter-less connections, unpaid bills, underpayment or no payment of house tax etc etc) citizens. One can deal with responsible citizens but not this lot in mysore. They better be left for a while and Jusco should simply concentrate in creating the facilities for 27x7 water supply and things will fall in place automatically.

You are well experienced citizen of mysore and would know the nature of municipal and muda administrative acumen. Only privatization (in good hands, and JUSCO i think is one of them) is the solution. Just 5 years ago electricity supply system underwent a tremendous capital inputs to ensure safety and adherence to standards- switch boards were put at all important terminals and gone were those hanging loose wires as switches. It is back to square one, no switch boards, no solar panel controlled steet lights. So better to try JUSCO type of privatization.

Rgds, Chandra Prakash

 

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Mr Murali

thanks for these most interesting exchanges - very revealing of the pathetic situation ! I feel it's worth continuing with JUSCO to see where this leads - if it fails, the effort might be worth & will offer better insights to the state on how best to go about it the next time - so, there is at least one positive.

One thing is for sure - people are very irresponsible & imagine that the state has to provide water, power, etc. for free ! Any move at privatization is opposed for this reason, but the reason cited is that officials & companies are hand-in-glove at fleecing the public.

I think for too long, the urban middle & lower middle income groups have got used to subsidies. This has to be broken step by step - the sooner, the better.

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I had forwarded this blog on the 'Bangalore Patrol' event to Dr Bhamy Shenoy, seeking his update on the Mysore-JUSCO water supply out-sourcing contract. The following was his response:

Dear Muralidhar,

Thanks for your email inquiring about JUSCO 24X7 water supply project in Mysore.  I was thinking of how to respond. I am out of Mysore and do not know the latest. In any case JUSCO has not come to my expectation. Being a Tata company I was expecting a lot from them. I cannot say they have been a paragon of excellence. However in comparison to Vani Vilas Water Works, they are much better and Mysore is definitely better of with JUSCO.  VVWW was taking us to ruination.  

One can try to justify the inefficiency on the part of JUSCO by putting blame on other systemic problems like tripartite contract was not done properly, VVWW employees were not helpful, politicians were creating obstacles, there was too much citizen protests etc. But a good and efficient company is expected to anticipate and overcome all those problems. I did not such dynamic organization on the part of JUSCO.

Here is one report which appeared today. It gives some idea of the progress (or lack of progress) JUSCO is making in Mysore. In any case please promote the involvement of companies like JUSCO to improve and to keep away politics.

Regards, Bhamy

Star of Mysore report dt 26th Nov, titled "JUSCO 24X7 PROJECT BEHIND TARGET"

The ambitious project of providing 24x7 water supply to the city, undertaken by the JUSCO under the JNNURM grants, is slowly but steadily inching towards becoming a reality.

Though JUSCO is far behind its stipulated target of commissioning 10,000 connections by Sept. 2010, it claims to have commissioned 6,600 connections as on Oct. 22 and is crawling towards attaining the target of 30,000 by Jan. 2012.

This was revealed during the District Metering Area (DMA) meeting held under the aegis of JUSCO at a Park in Jayanagar, K.G. Koppal, this morning.

The meeting was aimed at launching the meter installation process in that area (Ward 25 & 26) and clarifying doubts among residents about the 24x7 project.

Area Corporator Nagendra, Vani Vilas Water Works Executive Engineer Subramanya, JUSCO Connections Manager Balakrishna Raj Nirchal, Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Drainage Board Assistant Executive Engineer Nagaraj and others were present.

Nagaraj told SOM that of the 6,600 connections commissioned, 1,000 were in Saraswathipuram (from 1st Main to 17th Main) while the rest were in parts of Shanthinagar, Ghousianagar, Dattanagar and Rajeevnagar.

He said that the MCC, as per the tripartite agreement, had served notices to JUSCO for their delay in implementing the project within the target agreed upon and imposed fines too.

With only three years' period left to complete the project out of the total period of five years, JUSCO still seems to be toddling in the Primary Period, instead of commencing its Implementation Period at the end of two years.

Asked about the cause for delay, Nirchal said that JUSCO faced multiple problems at the onset, main being the paucity of man power. He also complained about lack of coordination by VVWW and said the pipe-laying and repair works had to be taken up only during the non-supply hours, taking care that the residents were not inconvenienced.

Under the 24x7 water supply project, a total of 69 Hydraulic Pressure Area have been demarcated in the District Metering Area, of which 22 have been covered so far, that is 10 in eastern part of city and 12 in we-stern part, Nirchal said.

Given the difficulties involved in a first of its kind contracts, the progress doesn't look too bad. Hopefully, it will even pick up momentum now.

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I had forwarded this blog to Dr Bhamy V Shenoy, a leading member of the MGP, and his response is as below:

Dear Murali,

thank you very much for bringing to our attention two key points about JUSCO through Praja posting.

I found the ADB report though short interesting and informative.  It is clear from that report that JUSCO is a relatively new company (formed in 2004), it has been supplying water for about 700,000 not on 24X7 basis but for about 6 hours a day and even more surprising that in some section of the city there is less than 1% metering.  The last point is most disturbing.  That may explain why per capita water consumption is one of the highest in India at 203 liters per day per person.

It is true that MGP is one of the few NGOs (perhaps may be the only one vocal supporter) of JUSCO from the beginning.  I as a member of MGP, have been actively supporting JUSCO.  Based on the information given by Mysore City Corporation, we were led to believe that JUSCO has more than 100 years of experience (this may still be true since JUSCO was the company formed out of the earlier utility) which has been supplying water in Jameshdpur on 24X7 for a very long time. Its operations are efficient but not the basis of its financial performance.  Our corporators had visited JUSCO operations and they also confirmed that water is supplied on 24X7 basis. Again this may be true for some section of the city. After all till few years back, some part of Mysore was getting water supply on 24X7 basis. Supplying water on 24X7 is not a rocket science and in just about every city in the developed countries water is supplied on 24X7 basis.

While some of us in MGP have given support to JUSCO project in Mysore, none of us have studied its technical or managerial capabilities. We went by the brand Tata and assumed that if they bid for contract and won it, they should be able to perform according to the contract terms.  Even if we had seen the ADB information which we see now, I would not have changed our opinion. I cannot speak for other members of MGP. This is because MGP has been studying the operations of Mysore's water supply for the last 20 years. It is totally dysfunctional and any outside consulting company even with some degree of technical competence should be able to improve it.  Of course if a company has excellent track record, and competence it will be great. But if we go on waiting for the ideal we may never achieve it.  

Based on the workings of JUSCO so far, while it is too early to say that they have failed in their mission, it will not be incorrect to state that they have not been successful in handling the public relations all that well.  Some section of the society which will be hurt if and when we get water supply on 24X7 is vehemently opposing JUSCO. JUSCO could have done a better job of interacting with the public and informing about how they plan to achieve their mission. In PR, they have failed.

At this stage we can only wait and hope for the best. I am still optimistic that we will have a better water supply system because of this JUSCO project under JNNURM.

Thanks again for sharing this information. I am copying JUSCO management to this email. May be they may like to clarify and give their views.

Bhamy Shenoy

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