Akbar: Why costlier river water for city?

IN

MIM floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi on Thursday lashed out at the state government for stopping drinking water supply from Osmansagar, Himayathsagar, Manjeera and Singur projects to the city, thereby causing more burden on the exchequer since the cost of pumping water from the rivers is higher.

During Question Hour, Mr Owaisi wanted to know the rationale behind not utilising the 7 tmc ft water from these four reservoirs. He reminded the government that Hyderabad city was allotted 4 tmc ft of Singur and 3 tmc ft from Osmansagar and Himayathsagar, and asked what would happen to that allotment.

The MIM leader said that the ‘real Hyderabad’ (the Old City) is presently deprived of water from the twin reservoirs besides the government’s failure to replace the age-old pipelines.

Mr Owaisi asked what will happen to the existing infrastructure of the four reservoirs on which `4,000 crore was spent by successive governments.

He said that while the cost of supplying water from Manjeera and Singur will be around `10 per KL and `3 per KL from Osmansagar and Himayathsagar, it would be `35 if drawn from the River Krishna and `40 from Godavari.

Municipal minister K.T. Rama Rao, while not giving a specific reply, said that the government has been working to replace all the age-old pipelines.