No free water for Outer Ring Road areas, scheme only for Greater Hyderabad residents

Hyderabad: A bad news for the residents of the Outer Ring Road areas who were looking forward to avail 20,000 litres of free water is that the state government has decided to exclude them from the scheme.

As per the government’s latest decision, the free water scheme will be implemented only in areas within Greater Hyderabad.

The state government had promised at the eve of the Municipal corporation elections that the areas of the Outer Ring Road will also be included in the free water scheme.

The state government has amended the scheme to implement it only in GHMC areas.

In the case of including the Outer Ring Road areas in the scheme, the Municipal Administration had to bear an additional expenditure of 9.08 lakh consumers at a cost of Rs.500 cr.  Thus, the bills from the residents of these areas will be collected as usual.

The Government has allocated Rs.250 cr for supplying drinking water to the new colonies in Outer Ring Road areas.  But still the government is keeping these areas out of the scheme.

The HMWSSB authorities said all those staying in GHMC areas who had linked their customer account Numbers with their Aadhaar and paid bills for January, February, and March will have their bills adjusted as per the new scheme.

It is said that more than one lakh consumers have linked their customer account Numbers with Aadhaar.

According to the Government guidelines, all home consumers and residents of the slum areas are eligible for the new scheme but they have to link their customer account Numbers with Aadhaar. 

While all the water consumers are required to install water meters, the slum dwellers are exempted from this condition.

More than 70% of water consumers in Hyderabad have no water meters.

As per an estimate of HMWSSB, the 10.08 lakh consumers can save Rs.19.92 cr a month by installing 2.37 lakh water meters.