Chitwan. The Bharatpur Drinking Water Management Board has collected dues of Rs 15.5 million from 1,503 consumers. The dues were recovered from the customers who had arrears of more than Rs 5,000 and had not paid water tariff for more than 6 months.

According to Sanjay Baral, chief of the office, the work of arrears has been started since February. He informed that the dues were recovered from mid-March to mid-July. The office is yet to recover dues of Rs 2 million from 500 customers. These are customers who have not paid the tariff for a long time.

Baral said that they are sending letters to the customers who have not paid their dues, going door-to-door, disconnecting the water line, sending SMS, reminding them and so on. The office has formed a team to recover the dues.

Last year, Rs 16,99,72,440 was collected out of Rs 16,59,42,100. This is 2.57 per cent more than the target.

Likewise, the Bharatpur Metropolitan City has not paid the subsidy for seven units of water. According to the office, the payment has not been received since November. He said that the arrears of eight months are more than Rs one crore. Metropolis residents have faced problems in drinking water projects as they have not been able to pay the amount of drinking water projects run by the Board and various consumer committees.