The Times of India 16.08.2013
Hyderabad water thieves to face criminal cases from today
HYDERABAD: Henceforth, criminal cases will be booked against property owners who have illegal water connections. The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) has asked all its managers to start booking criminal cases from Friday.
The Water Board has already discussed with Hyderabad police commissioner Anurag Sharma its drive and sought his cooperation in reining in the menace by directing his officials to receive complaints lodged by the board authorities and book criminal cases against water thieves.
HMWS&SB managing director J Syamala Rao said the managers have to take photographs as proof after identifying the illegal connection before disconnecting it. The managers concerned have to stick to a prescribed format to lodge a complaint. Also it's mandatory to enclose the photograph of the illegal water connection with the complaint.
In the complaint addressed to the station house officer (SHO), the Water Board official would request the official to register a case under Section 52 read with Section 49 (1), (b), (c) of the HMWS&SB Act 1989, and Section 430 of the IPC and Section 3 (2) (a) of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act 1984 against those having illegal water connection.
"The Water Board authorities have already identified at least five to 10 cases in each division for booking criminal cases from Friday.
The managers concerned have to submit action taken report every Monday to the general managers concerned and they in turn would be sending them to the director-revenue," a senior HMWS&SB official told TOI.
The Water Board would simultaneously start invoking the Revenue Recovery (RR) Act to seize assets of long-time defaulters, the official said.
HMWS&SB managing director J Syamala Rao said the managers have to take photographs as proof after identifying the illegal connection before disconnecting it. Also it's mandatory to enclose the photograph of the illegal water connection with the complaint.
