BWSSB — Drinkilng Water Leakage and staff misbehaviour

Address: Bangalore, Karnataka

Bangalore, 17th March’15 From: B.S.Damodar, 41, BCC Layout, 2nd Stage, Bangalore 40 (Mobile No.[protected]) To: The Chairman/Commissioner, BWSSB, Bangalore Dear Sir, Reg:- Complaint - Misbehaviour of Junior Line Man in Chandra Layout BWSSB Office I am (aged 70 yrs) a responsible senior citizen. In our Bcc lay out(2ND Stage) quite often drinking water gets leaked out and lot of water is going to gutter unabated. It is a perennial problem. When ever I happened to notice the leak, considering it as civic responsibility, I do bring it to the notice of your chandralayout office, either by telephonically or personally going over there. Some of these leaks get repaired in next couple of days. But there are a few points where the leakage has become a regular perennial phenomenon! It is very unfortunate that the people concerned have become most unconcerned about the water getting wasted unabated this way. This is one part of the story. Last Thursday when I was returning home from Vijayanagara at about 6’o.clock I saw the road is flooded with water. I could see at 4 points in the layout water getting leaked out and in one point the road was getting flooded as if it were a river. All the passerby were just scolding the BWSSB officials for their irresponsibility. Had the line man taken a round after giving the service, he would have noticed these leakages then and there itself. Some were commenting like ‘they are getting their salary you know?’. True, is it not. I fail to comprehend as to why the line man after giving the service does not go one round in the service area to check as to whether there exists any leakage. It appears that nobody in BWSSB office is bothered. Neither the line man nor the JE/AEE/superintendant/inspector does this important exercise! Anyway when I happened notice see this, immediately I phoned up to the BWSSB Office and informed, the Junior Line Man(which I came to know later), casually told ok, ok, we will get them repaired, without bothering about its significance. I am very sorry to state this. Had the water been allowed to get leaked out continuously then, in 12 hours night not less than 250K Ltrs. of water would have flown to gutter on that day! As such, once again I had to bang him over phone with loud voice to visit the site and stop the service immediately and give service only after getting them repaired on the next day. Still he neither visited the site nor stopped the supply. Then again I had to telephone up to one Mr. Govinda setty, who is a senior Line Man there. He however, stopped the service, on my reporting of the leak. Next day though contract workers visited for repair, they repaired only 2 leakage points. Thus, still 2 more points remained unattended. As such, when they gave service on Saturday and yesterday again through out the night water leaked and flown in the gutter. Per night not less than 100 K Ltrs. must be getting wasted in these two leak points now! After realising that the leak points were not repaired I went to BWSSB Office on Saturday and asked this Junior Line Man to come with me in my vehicle to know the point. He refused to come. However, one contract repair worker sitting there came with me and saw the points. In spite of this when still they were not repaired in next two days, I went to the BWSSB office yesterday again and asked this boy. He started shouting at me. He told me that ‘you have informed; over; we will repair; it takes time; it can’t be repaired as and when it is brought to our notice’. Besides he started calling me ‘neenu’ ‘neenu’ ; telling me if I want, I may record the complaint in the book and go. He even refused to part with the mobile nos. of JE or AEE. I fail to understand in any public utility office, the phone nos. of such senior level officials should always be on display in the Notice Board or pasted at some prominent place, to contact in case of need. While such is the case this boy was not only behaving very arrogantly with a person like me (70yrs old senior respectable person, with civic sense only who visited to lodge the complaint), he was not even willing to give me the phone nos. of JE/AEE or any higher official.! I do not know as to how such boys are recruited for such posts in public amenities(service) departments. He is most unconcerned & arrogant and does not know as to how to behave with senior citizens even. I am told he is son of one of the Senior Line Man in BWSSB. That is why probably he is thinking that whatever he wants he can do and if some thing bad happens his father is there to protect him. He does not know as to how difficult it is to fetch a bucket full of water from KRS, Mysore to Chandralayout in Bangalore! He doest know as to how many people do put hard efforts to get a bucket full of drinking water, even in city like Bangalore! This is a very sad state of affair. If BWSSB were a private Organisation, such employees would have seen the music. No private management will allow the resource to get wasted to such a large extent. Because of such an irresponsible behaviour of your employees only, today more than 40% of the water comes from KRS, Mysore gets wasted & unaccounted in Bangalore city. For such a loss what you are now doing - ‘simply levying higher and higher charges to the consumers, mainly those of Apartments! How funny it is! It is my sincere feeling that all your employees need to have proper lessons on behavioural science at the first instant. Courtesy in dealing with the consumers is most important. They should be taught about the services expected of them also. As I have already indicated above, after giving service somebody( lineman/supervisor/ inspector/Sr. Lineman or some other official) should go round the service area to ensure water is not getting leaked out from any point). It should be a routine responsibility and on this, Office Head should get a report on a regular basis. JEs stationed in such offices should do more such supervisory works. Yours faithfully, BSDamodar Copy: The Minister In Charge of Bangalore City.