The Times of India            20.09.2010

HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board's (HMWS&SB) move to deploy `Disconnection Gangs' is having its desired effect. Long-standing defaulters are queing up to clear their arrears.

Buoyed with the success, the Water Board has started slapping fresh notices on nearly 1.50 lakh defaulters hoping to earn Rs six crore revenue. "The Water Board short-listed defaulters who owe Rs 5,000 and above. All these defaulters have not paid dues for the past six months. We started issuing notices since Saturday. The defaulter has to clear dues within 15 days from the date of notice or else the disconnection gangs will disconnect water and sewerage connections without intimation," HMWS&SB executive director K Ashok Reddy told TOI.

The Water Board officials reviewed two months' data on increasing revenue. "We received good response from defaulters when we slapped notices. They came forward and cleared the dues. The disconnection gangs are proving to be a major deterrent," he claimed. Once, the gang disconnects the connections, general managers of operation and maintenance (O&M) divisions would follow up on defaulters.

Meanwhile, HMWS&SB managing director M Jagadeeswar on Saturday issued charge memos to 27 managers (engineering) for lack of supervision over the performance of certain meter readers on revenue billing and collection during August.

"Negligence on the part of the managers in taking disciplinary action against those meter readers, who have not achieved 50 per cent of paid CANs (Customer Account Numbers) and at the same time have not billed at least to the extent of 90 per cent, has resulted in dislocation of revenue collection system causing serious financial loss to the Board, which is already facing severe financial crisis," he said in an official release.