RAWALPINDI, May 27: The Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) has contacted the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to take over management of Sangjani Filtration Plant which supplies water to Rawalpindi and Islamabad from Khanpur Dam.

However, the CDA is not in a mood to entertain the request because it is a federal government project and according to rules, it is to be operated by the capital’s civic body.

“We decided to get the management of the filtration plant as the cantonment areas had to suffer badly due to  suspension of water supply,” said RCB Cantonment Executive Officer Rana Manzoor Ahmed Khan. Rana Manzoor said the CDA had failed to manage the filtration plant and did not pay electricity bills on time. “If the CDA had deposited bills worth Rs69 million on time, power supply would not have been suspended,” he said.

He said the station commander, who is also president of RCB and CCB, gave him a task to hold meetings with the CDA officials to get the management of Sangjani Filtration Plant.

He said the cantonment municipal administrations were of the view that the Cantt areas were getting 70 per cent water from the dam and management of the supply should be under their control. He said the RCB should manage the plant as there were three stakeholders —  CDA, RCB and Wasa. He said the RCB was getting 11 MGD of water from the dam while CDA was getting 10 MGD and Wasa was getting 6 MGD.

To a question about the clearance of its share of Rs180 million to the CDA against the maintenance of filtration plant, Mr Khan said the RCB paid Rs25 million to CDA three days ago and remaining amount would be cleared by end of June. “The CCB and MES will provide their share to RCB and it will deposit the dues to the CDA,” he said.

CDA Member Engineering Sanaullah Aman told Dawn that the CDA had not received any request regarding the handing over of filtration plant at Sangjani to the RCB.

“It is not possible because the plant has been constructed by the CDA which has been running its affairs for the last 10 years and federal government-funded project could not be managed by a civic body of Punjab,” he said. The RCB’s demand for the plant’s management was not based on facts, he said, adding that the RCB had to clear arrears to the CDA. He said if the RCB came up with this request, the federal government would have to be involved to solve the issue.—A Reporter