Water splurge at state quarters

Meanwhile, residents face water scarcity

While several areas in the core city have been experiencing low pressure water supply, and there is a severe shortage in the peripheral areas, the Metro Water Board is supplying 4 crore litres to MLA quarters, 76 lakh litres to the Legislative Assembly, 17 lakh litres to the Chief Minister’s official residence and 4.5 lakh litres to Raj Bhavan every month.

It is supplying another 1,188.5 lakh litres to beer companies.

In all the peripheral areas including several areas in Kapra circle and Jeedimetla, the board is supply water once in seven days through tankers. Reservoirs have been constructed for these areas, but the board is yet to provide connections and start supply.

In the peripheral circles including Rajendranagar, Quthbullapur, Maheshwaram, LB Nagar, Serilingampally and Kapra, residents are forced to depend on tankers which supply water once in every seven to 10 days.

Water supply was cut from 16 lakh gallons to the Secunderabad Cantonment Board in April to 10 lakh gallons in May. The board has been supplying 13 crore litres for 3 lakh residents in SCB.

The SCB area gets water once in four days. The areas worst hit by shortage are Rasoolpura, Ambedkarnagar behind Monda Market and Bowenpally which does not have household connections.

SCB Ward 2 member S. Keshav Reddy said several representations made to the state government had fallen on deaf ears. He said that despite tall claims of minister K.T. Rama Rao in waiving `80 crore arrears, demand notices had been sent for `19 crore recently.

He said there was a water crisis in Rasoolpura and area has been receiving water for every four days. He said residents in SCB had been receiving stepmotherly treatment from the government.

SCB vice-president J. Rama Krishna, said he was not aware about the dip in water supply. He said that areas like Rasoolpura, Karkhana and Vasavinagar, which had faced an acute water crisis until last year, were now receiving water at regular intervals. He said water was being supplied to Ambedkarnagar in tankers. He said a main trunk pipeline would be laid in the area at the cost of `8 lakh to resolve the problem.

Highly placed sources said the Board is not keeping its promise of supplying 15,000 litres for every household per month in the core city and has been supplying lakhs of litres to the Old MLA Quarters. They questioned the attitude of the board in providing VVIPs surplus water and failing to meet the needs of the domestic sector.

The water supply time and pressure has dropped by 50 per cent in the core city. In peripheral circles, the board has not even laid pipelines to supply water to residents.

A senior Water Board official admitting that there was a water crisis and low pressure supply said that in some areas the board had not been doing its best to supply water to homes.

He said that the water supply has been increased from 400 million gallons to 450 million gallons a day. He refused to comment on supplying surplus water to VVIPs and breweries.

He said the Water Board had been supplying water from several years and it would continue to do so till it gets an order from the state government.