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The government has to provide basic amenities

The life of a person is dependent on water, electricity and other basic facilities from the government, municipality and other statutory bodies.

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The life of a person is dependent on water, electricity and other basic facilities from the government, municipality and other statutory bodies. These services are often inadequate in quality and quantity which the authority conveniently brushes aside. Worse still, lack of funds and environmental conditions are blamed for the situation. An order from the National Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission in Brij Mohan vs. sub-divisional engineer and others will soon change these perceptions.

Brij Mohan was a resident of Nupur Bedi Village. The water supplied to the village was contaminated with sand and silt. As a result, his mother and some people in the village fell ill. Repeated complaints to the authority fell on deaf ears.

Sick of the attitude of the sub-divisional engineer handling the water department, the consumer dragged the public authority to the local District Forum alleging deficiency of service. The forum ordered the water to be tested by the senior chemist of the district. Based on the report, the Forum dismissed the complaint. Brij Mohan went in appeal to the State Commission, but here too the appeal was dismissed.

Mohan took the matter to the National Commission. The National Commission compared the test report of the water in the village with the standards laid down by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) on potable water. It noticed that the standards of the water supplied did not meet these parameters.

Taking serious note of the fact that the water was not fit for human consumption, the National Commission said that it could not be the case of the respondent authority that they had no duty to supply drinking water which was not potable to the consumers of the village. The commission ordered the authority to pay a sum of Rs 10,000 as compensation along with Rs 5,000 as costs of litigation.
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