Secunderabad: Reeling under loss, water board surveys illegal users

SECUNDERABAD: A survey to ascertain the number of illegal water connections at Regimental Bazar in Secunderabad began a few days ago. The survey was undertaken after Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) noticed a drastic fall in its monthly revenue, despite providing potable water to its consumers.
“To check the irregularity, special teams were formed to conduct door-to-door surveys at Marredpally O&M Division-VII.We launched the survey three days ago and visited 200 houses and verified the date of consumers. During the survey at Regimental Bazar, we found that many domestic consumers hadn’t yet converted their category into commercial, though their premises was being used for commercial purposes,” said S Rajasekhar, general manager, HMWS&SB, O&M Division-VII (Marredpally).

As per water board records, of 1,000 commercial properties in Rezimental Bazar, so far 200 have been surveyed. Officials plan tio complete the suvey in two weeks, added Rajasekhar.
P Santosh Kumar, deputy general manager, (Tarnaka section), said, “We can ascertain the exact number of illegal connections only after completion of the survey.”
Once the survey is completed, data will be sent to HMWS&SB’s vigilance wing to act against defaulters. If need be, criminal cases, too, will be registered, said a senior official.
About 150 water board officials are taking part in the survey. A special format has been designed to get all the details of consumers, such as type of water connection, monthly bills and their timely payments, status of water meter, type of property and extent of the premises.
During a similar survey few years ago, it emerged that over 60% domestic consumers did not convert their water connections to ‘commercial’ category, though they were using their premises for commercial use. As a result, many consumers used to get water bills with the tariff for ‘domestic’ category,’ causing a loss of revenue for the water board.