Jaipur: Residents of several colonies in Prithviraj Nagar were left stunned after receiving unexpectedly high water bills in May—even in areas where water pipelines are yet to be installed.The issue surfaced in over 20 colonies, including Ashok Vihar, Hans Vihar, Krishna Vihar, and Shyam Vatika.The Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) recently began supplying Bisalpur water to parts of the area, but many households without active water connections still received bills, causing confusion and frustration among residents. “Around five months ago, I applied for the PHED connection. The department is yet to supply water to my house. Still, the department sent me a bill of Rs 700,” said Shailendra Bhatt, a resident of Rajiv Vihar. The residents claimed that most of them received bills ranging between Rs 400-700, despite the water supply to households being very limited. Even residents of the Income Tax Colony in Sanganer have received these ‘inflated’ bills.“In my colony, no PHED officials visited a single house after providing the Bisalpur connection to read the meter. Then how did PHED calculate our bill?” said Narayan Singh, President of Hans Vihar Vikas Samiti.When TOI contacted PHED, a senior engineer said, “Residents do not need to worry. As per the new norm, we are going to generate bills according to the new tariff, but residents consuming water up to the quantity of the lowest slab of the tariff need to shell out only Rs 50 after deducting all the subsidy,” said a PHED engineer.
