Deccan Chronicle               30.01.2014

City has over 1 lakh illegal connections

Hyderabad:
There are over 1 lakh illegal water connections in Greater Hyderabad. A
survey being conducted by the Administrative Staff College of India has
revealed thousands of illegal connections in just the three surrounding
municipalities of Malkajgiri, LB Nagar and Kukatpally.

The ASCI
survey is also covering the number of families staying in a building,
usage of water, sources of water, how much are they willing to pay, the
quality of water etc.

“The Board wants to give one last
opportunity to people to voluntary disclose their illegal connections
and get them regularised,” said a source.

Earlier too, the Board
had offered to regularise illegal connections but only 7,000
applications had been received. People had then complained that the
penalty and other charges for regularisation were very high.

Keeping this in view, the officials are now being liberal while preparing a revised policy.

“This
scheme will be available to those who voluntarily disclose their
illegal connections. If the Board identifies the connections, then the
penalty and other charges will be three times more than the earlier
scheme,” said an official.

The HMWS&SB had earlier offered to
regularize illegal water connections on payment of three years’ water
consumption charges, two times connection charges and Rs 300 as service
charges. The offer was not attractive, citizens had said.

Keeping
this in view, the officials are now being liberal while preparing a
revised policy and will charge only one year’s consumption charges and
one-time connection charges.

“This scheme will be available to
those who voluntarily disclose their illegal connections. If the Board
identifies the connections, then the penalty and other charges will be
three times more than the earlier scheme, besides, criminal cases will
be booked against the illegal water connection holder,” said an
official.

HMWS&SB managing director J. Syamala Rao said a new,
liberal policy for regularization of illegal connections would be
announced shortly.

“I appeal to the citizens to utilize this
opportunity or face criminal cases including going to jail. We are going
to be very stringent with water pilferers and also with our field staff
for failing to identify illegal connections before our senior officials
do it,” he said.