Water Board fails to issue CAN

File on charges paid for water connection misplaced by Board

We bought a flat at the North West Residency Apartment in Sri Venkateshwara Offi-cers Colony, RK Puram, Secunderabad, in September 2008 from builder Ms. Fathima Mary, wife of Mr Pratap Reddy. When we bought the flats, the builder said that the North West Residency had an approved municipal drinking water connection. We stepped into our new flats in January 2009. This apartment has eight flats. Since the end of 2009, we have been receiving the power bills in our names, but not the water bill from the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWSSB). We, the eight owners of the flats, approached our builder and he said that he had paid `70,000 towards a water connection for the North West Residency at the beginning of 2008 and the HMWSSB would soon send the water bill to us. We also checked the records at the Defence Colony HMWSSB office in Secunderabad. We found all those details such as charges of `70,000 paid towards a drinking water connection for our apartments paid by Ms Fathima Mary. In the middle of 2012, we (the eight flat owners) approached our builder again for the water bill. Since then, we also visited various offices of the HMWSSB. They recommend us to apply for a fresh connection. The fresh connection is very expensive as we had already paid for the water connection to our builder. Now, neither the builder nor we have a copy of those certificates, challans and paid receipts for the drinking water connection. Who is going to be held responsible for the missing of the file at the office of the chief general manager (Rev), HMWSSB, Khairatabad? We are ready to pay our arrears once a Consumer Account Number (CAN) is generated in the name of our apartments. We appeal to the HMWSSB with this letter to stop harassing us and issue us a CAN. We are taxpayers and the citizens of India. We appeal to the authorities to issue us a CAN as soon as possible and emancipate us from the clutches of continuous harassment.