LAHORE, Dec 25: The Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) has penalised its three ‘negligent’ officials on the orders of the provincial ombudsman.

Plaintiff Shaukat Mahmood submitted to Punjab Ombudsman Abdur Rashid Khan that Wasa sent him a water supply bill of Rs16,980 for July-August and another bill of Rs18,270 for November-December, 2006. He said the consumer’s name mentioned on the bills was Muhammad Husain and he had no link with any such man, but Wasa officials insisted on recovering the bills from him.

The Wasa deputy director (revenue) submitted in his departmental response that a water connection was obtained for the place occupied by Mahmood by its previous owner on March 28, 2000, but he did not pay the bill. The bills accumulated to Rs18,267 till Dec 31, 2006. The water supply to Mahmood was disconnected in April 2006, but he got it restored ‘illegally’ and it was now intact. The ‘illegal’ restoration of water supply was verified in January 2007 and Mahmood was summoned to appear in the court of a Wasa special magistrate.

The ombudsman observed in his decision that Mahmood was in trouble because he purchased the property in August 2007 without obtaining a clearance certificate from Wasa, but Wasa functionaries were also negligent about their duty because they did not recover the dues from the previous owner of the property and let these accumulate. He said 50 per cent of the outstanding amount should be recovered from the Wasa officials who did not collect the dues on time and 50 per cent from Mahmood.

Finally, the Wasa managing director submitted to the ombudsman that annual increments of recovery field inspectors Shamshad Ali and Muhammad Naseem and assistant field inspector Mirza Haseeb Baig had been stopped for negligence from duty and 50 per cent of the outstanding dues would be also recovered from them.