After the regular complaints from consumers of not receiving the water bills timely or missing the water bills received, The Public Health and Engineering Department (PHED) has decided to send water bills to mobile phone numbers of consumers through SMSes in addition to the already being sent traditional paper bills.
Most of the consumers have claimed that on most occasions they don’t receive their water bills on time or their bill is not found at home. Due to this they were unable to deposit the bill on time and had to pay a penalty. Now the water supply department has planned to tackle such complaints by sending the bill on their registered mobile numbers as well.
Water Bill will be sent on Mobile
There are 4 lakh 25 thousand drinking water consumers in Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan. The Water Supply Department will soon send a message to the consumers of the state on their mobiles regarding the quantity of water consumed, bill amount and the last date for depositing the bill. Due to this, all the consumers will be alert about depositing the water bill.
The billing agency will take the mobile numbers of the consumers and enter them in the billing software. If the consumer does not deposit the bill even after receiving the message, then till the next bill, the amount of the outstanding bill and the message to deposit it will also be sent to his mobile.
According to officials of the Water Supply Department, “20% of the water bills are deposited after the last date has passed. With the new system, consumers will also be saved from penalty and the revenue of the department will also increase.”
“As soon as PHED generated the bill of a particular household the SMS would reach the registered mobile number of the consumer. The hardcopy of the bill would then be posted as usual to the household. There is also a plan to send the bill on mobile along with the payment link. Consumers can pay the bill by clicking on the link and after entering the relevant allotment number,” added the official.
As of now, the PHED officials are in talks with the software maintenance company to put this system in place. The facility would be available initially for the consumers of Jaipur, later PHED would extend it for consumers across the state.
