The provincial Ombudsman on Tuesday directed the Wasa officials to take action against three 'Recovery Field Inspectors', and stopped one annual increment of each of them besides recovery of 50 percent amount of the outstanding bill not recovered on account of negligence of duty.
The Ombudsman passed these directions on a complaint of Shaukat Mahmood who submitted that Wasa had sent him water bill of Rs 16,980 for July-August 2006 whereafter a bill of Rs 18,270 for November-December 2006 was sent. He said that neither the said bill was in his name nor did it concern him, but the Wasa functionaries were bent upon recovering the said bill amount from him and were coercing him and his family members in this regard.
The Ombudsman held that the complainant had purchased the property in question without obtaining clearance certificate from the Wasa and also did not inform the agency. Therefore, he faced the consequences.
The Ombudsman, however, directing Wasa functionaries to take action against responsible officials and observed that the functionaries who did not recover outstanding from the previous owner and allowed the amount to accumulate were equally responsible for neglect of their duty which amounted to maladministration by all standards.