LAHORE, Oct 5: The provincial ombudsman has directed the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) to stop recovering meter repair and maintenance charges from consumers with un-metered connections and adjust the amounts recovered in their future bills.

The ombudsman gave the directions on a report from Wasa in response to his suo motu notice of a news item that the agency was recovering Rs25 in the name of meter repair and maintenance without installing meters on consumers water supply connections.

Responding to the notice, Wasa’s revenue director submitted that the charges were recovered from the consumers from the date of installation of water supply connections. He clarified that the repair and maintenance charges were being excluded from the bills of consumers with un-metered connections.—Reporter