COMMENTS

 If a full O & M cost recovery mechanism as to be put in place and the per capita consumption was 135 litres (this is per peson) a family of 5 would get an average bill of Rs 102/- and a family of 4 Rs 82?- 

This is from the STUP report and for the year 2024

Assuming a fixed charge of Rs 15 /- and a sanitary cess of Rs 25 /- as in Bangalore, total water and sewerage bill per connection for a family of 5 would be Rs 142/-   and for a family of 4 people Rs 122/-   monthly.

This is less than Rs 5 daily for 675 litres of water. 

Is this reasonable for middle class Mysoreans? Would be interesting to get a feedback.

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Hi Zen

Good to have your views on Praja.  Your observations are fine. Nothing is clear about JUSCO deal, as pointed out by Mr.PMBhat.  You may hear from him soon.

According to the deal, revision of water rates, supply of 24X7 to BPL / slum areas etc., are not within the ambit of JUSCO - these are left to the service provider - Vanivilas Water Works - JUSCO will definitely help itself with a bonus also at the end of the 6th year of operation by quoting that the service provider has not been as dynamic as JUSCO expected.  Can this be the scenario at the end of the deal?

A few other questions are haunting the literate class who will be ultimately made to pay the bills to subsidize free supply of water to BPL/Slums etc.:

(1) Most of the consumers in old city areas have illegal connections and the onus of disconnecting/fixing meters lies with VVWW (JUSCO will fix meters as and when they get the clearance to fix meters) - Will the local goons - Corporators - MLAs who are the beneficiaries of illegal water connection collections keep quiet?

(2) What happens to the permanent employees/daily wages contract laborers before and after the JUSCO deal?

(3) Will it be possible for JUSCO to achieve what VVWW could not achieve for many decades of water supply experience? Why there was failure on the part of the service providers? 

(4) KRS being just 12 kms. away from City of Mysore, has not been the beneficiary of Kaveri water.  Paradox - Kaveri water is supplied to Bengaluru by pumping it - 100 kms - the only city in the world to get water from such a distance.

(5) Will the water proposed to be supplied 24X7 free from bacterial load? Is it the responsibility of JUSCO or VVWW? 

Your views will be appreciated and Mysoreans will be happy to have you attend the scheduled meeting with JUSCO deal as one of the subjects - with DC, Mysore.

-Vasanthkumar Mysoremath

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MVK sir,

Want to ask you before myself or others unload examples. Are you sure about "100 kms - the only city in the world to get water from such a distance." The only city ? :) I would say instead of forcing/asking for Kaveri, Jusco should not be forced to supply or not supply from any source. They should have the freedom, which would come handy for consumers later.

Question - Does Jusco get unconditional exclusivity? Is there any scope for adding another supplier for VVWW later?

"Will it be possible for JUSCO to achieve what VVWW could not achieve for many decades". Thats the whole point isn't it? VVWW could not, so someone else has to be tried.

"Will the local goons - Corporators - MLAs who are the beneficiaries of illegal water connection collections keep quiet?" - with VVWW, they could at least use their "connections" and influence to work over it. Should be tougher with a private entity in place.

On water quality - I am sure there would be an SLA on quality of water between JUSCO and VVWW. But they will promise it till their "handoff or charge points". Should scrutinize the contract to be clear and un-ambiguous on this so that there is no scope for pointing fingers at each other later.

And you didn't get Zenrainman (Vishwanath sir)'s point. He is asking what is the reasonable rate that middle class Mysoreans would be 'okay' to pay for water? Whether VVWW collects the money or Jusco - these rates would eventually determine everyone's share down the supply chain.

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Dear VKMM Sir,

I'm a Mysorean by birth and heart. Krishnamurthypuram and Vidyaranyapuram being my haunt. GTR dose the best dose in the world and NIE my Alma mater :):) You can take a person out of Mysore but not Mysore from that person. 

But to get to matters at discussion and your question

 (1) Most of the consumers in old city areas have illegal connections and the onus of disconnecting/fixing meters lies with VVWW (JUSCO will fix meters as and when they get the clearance to fix meters) - Will the local goons - Corporators - MLAs who are the beneficiaries of illegal water connection collections keep quiet?

It is not right to club oons/corporators/MLA's. Leave out the goons , they need to be dealt with as a law and order situation.   The Corporators/MLA's represent political interests of a particular ward or constituency.   Now better service 'demonstrated' is the only way to get the basic condition right for people to pay to run the system. Then follows the instituional mechanism to make it so.

I think a regulatory mechanism will need to come into place such as the Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Council as is bein proposed by the KUWS&DB or atlast an ombudsman. 

2) What about the workers?

For sure they will need to be retained and retrained. With an increase in the number of connections there will always be place for the workforce but one will have to be clear whether this is a water suply scheme or NUEGA

3) Would it be possible for JUSCO to provide ... why was there failure earlier?

Unfortunately it has to do with the governance deterioration - both political and institutional. We have the technical capacity, as is demonstrated by the fact that the Mysore water supply scheme is from 1896,  but how do we run institutions with a 40 year vision and a vision for ALL rather than on a 5 year for my ward vision? We will need to answer this governance question through partly Civil Society groups like the Mysore Grahakara Parishad but mostly through political engagement.

Reform is needed for VVWW/KUWSDB and MCC as much as is the introduction of the likes of JUSCO and this should not be forgotten. The entry of a private player mkes the role of the public player MORE important though different in nature, this needs to be strenghtened with capacity building for the new role.

4) KRS .... reaches Bangalore not Mysore?

Well actually the Kabini and the Cauvery are part of the Cauvery basin and the truth is that it is the Kabini which surpluses the most so Bangalore too gets most of its water from the Kabini though it is called the Cauvery w/s scheme. 

The bigger question is when do we get a basin management institution to manage and allocate waters from the ENTIRE cauvery system? Why do we not plan for the portion WITHIN kKarnataka? We will need to do that and work on NESTED institutions which arm and support each other with information and planning tools to ensure water.

5) On water quality?

In India NO water provider is legally mandated to deliver water of A  particular quality except those who supply packaged water. BIS 10500 the drinkin water quality i simply a standard not legally nforceable. This needs to be rectified globally but definitely ith the JUSCO deal there should be an insistence on meeting BIS 10500 at delivery point. 

It is great that documents are now cooming in the public domain and that the MGP is taking the lead in creating and 'informed' debate because gnerally fear mongering is more populist.

It woul be important to know how the interests of the poor will be protected in the Mysore scheme and the nature of a pro-poor approach . This needs to be fleshed out by the MCC .

Two huge gaps in the scheme of things now

- sanitation-sewerage and waste water management

- groundwater   

If these are not managed there will be costs to pay but if managed water can become more accessible and cheaper.

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After reading the summary by Mr Bhat, the only deficiency appears to be wrt the following:

Was the contract kept a secret from the citizens of Mysore?

One of the conditions for receiving JNNURM funds is that citizens should participate in the preparation of the project. Such participation has been absent from the JNNURM projects of Mysore city. The officials show dates on which consultation meetings with the public were held, but we have seen no announcements of these meetings. So, if they were held at all, only friends of the officials must have participated in them. Such meeting can not be termed public meeting

Serious as it is, does it warrant the scrapping of the whole deal? Talk of babies and bath water.

Muralidhar Rao

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