Hyderabad: Congress asks government to bear cost of fixing metres says Sameer Waliullah

Hyderabad: Hyderabad City Congress Committee (HCCC) Minorities department chairman Sameer Waliullah on Monday demanded that the State government bear the entire cost of installation of metres for the beneficiaries of 20,000 litres free water scheme in the GHMC areas.

He said the guidelines issued by the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply & Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) on January 23 were not practical and they must be modified. As per the guidelines, he said, the consumers were being asked to link their Customer Account Numbers (CAN) with Aadhaar to avail themselves of the scheme.

Domestic consumers in non-slums areas are being asked to fix a metre by spending between Rs1,498 and Rs 2,147. "The Telangana High Court had opposed the mandatory provision of Aadhaar details in connection with registration of properties. Therefore, how can the HMWSSB force the consumers to link their CAN with Aadhaar to get 20,000 litres of free water?" he asked.

Further, Sameer Waliullah said more than 50 per cent of the households in City had no water metres. The board is charging them a nominal bill of about Rs. 200-300. They are small consumers with consumption of less than 20,000 litres a month. Therefore, instead of forcing them to spend about Rs 2,000 for installation of metres, the government can start sending them 'zero bills'.

However, if the HMWSSB is firm on fixing metres, then the government should bear the entire cost of installation of nearly nine lakh metres which would come to about Rs193-200 crore.

The Congress leader expressed concern over reports that only one lakh metres were available with the approved agencies. Therefore, the government should clarify as to how it proposes to fill the huge gap of about eight lakh more metres.