Over a million people, who get filtered potable water from the Garden Reach waterworks, face the prospect of reduced supplies if the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) does not pay the Calcutta Municipal Water and Sanitation Authority (CMWSA) its bills.

Municipal affairs minister Asok Bhattacharya said: ?We have allowed two waivers of interest to the CMC at the request of mayor Subrata Mukherjee. This followed an assurance that he would pay Rs 50 crore to the CMWSA. But the mayor has not kept his word.?

Mayor Mukherjee retorted: ?I am not ready to pay the water bills run up by the two mayors in charge of the CMC for 15 years before me.?

A senior CMWSA officer pointed out that the CMC cuts water supply lines for non-payment of charges. ?It must also remember that it may not be possible for the CMSWA to supply 120 million gallons of filtered water daily to the CMC free for an extended period of time,? he added.

According to chief engineer S.N. Chatterjee, the CMWSA charges Rs 3 for the supply of every 1,000 litres of filtered water to the CMC. The CMC?s total outstanding since 1985 is more than Rs 378 crore.

?The CMC is our biggest customer and if it doesn?t pay up, it will be hard for the CMWSA to sustain itself,? said Chatterjee.

He added that since the interest of a million people was involved, the CMWSA is hesitant to take any harsh action.

An engineer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said a discussion is on to curtail the supply of filtered water to the CMC. The CMWSA supplies filtered water to the CMC in three time slots a day and perhaps one slot will be dropped first. ?It?s none of our concern if the CMC picks up the tab for domestic supply of filtered water or not,? he said.

Chief engineer Chatterjee said the CMWSA has 200 deep tubewells to supply potable water in 20 municipal areas and collects Rs 30 per month from each domestic consumer.

Only 15 per cent of the total collectable charges have remained outstanding.

On water supply privatisation, he said a Jamshedpur firm that had showed interest backed down on finding that 95 per cent of the consumers are domestic.