Thiruvananthapuram: The meter readers of the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) are an unhappy lot as their the daily target has been doubled. As per the new order, meter readers are to issue at least 80 bills per day in the corporation limits. In an effort to justify the revised target as realistic and very much doable, KWA managing director Bhandari Swagath Ranveerchand, IAS, herself went out to check the water meters at 85 houses and issued bills.
The MD completed issuing 85 bills in the corporation limits within 3 hours.
She directly went to check the meters and issued bills amid protests led by staff associations against the target raise without any discussion or betterment of the basic amenities.
The MD has called a meeting of recognised staff union representatives on July 19 to discuss the issue.
Following the MD's act, P Biju, the state general secretary of the Kerala Water Authority Staff Association (KWASA), set out to read meters and issue bills in the corporation limits so as to understand the problems faced by meter readers during work. However, Biju could only issue bills in 50 houses.
(The KWASA is affiliated to the Indian National Trade Union Congress or INTUC.)
Daily grind of meter readers
The job of the meter readers involves meter reading for 20 days a month and other bill related processes on the remaining working days. Earlier, a meter reader was to check 30 meters in a panchayat and 40 in a municipality. At present, the target is 50 for panchayat, 60 for municipality, and 80 for corporation.
The staff, however, alleged that there is not even one permanent staff to check meters for three panchayats.
The Water Authority has 345 permanent meter readers. Besides, as many as 300 staff recruited to other positions, including the last grade, have been engaged as meter readers. They are given an additional incentive of Rs 300 per month.
Moreover, nearly, thousand contract workers, including those from the Kudumbasree, have been appointed as meter readers.
