June 10: Elected representatives including MPs, MLCs and MLAs from the city on Thursday accused officials of the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) of failing to stop polluted drinking water from being supplied to the city. They also alleged that the Board was giving wrong figures on the amount of water being supplied to the city every day.

The MIM MLAs, Mr Mumtaz Ahmed Khan and Mr Virasat Rasool Khan, said that several areas in Yakutpura and Nampally were receiving “coloured” water. Desilting of sewer lines had not been done properly due to which the drains were over-flowing. In addition to that a large number of manholes were not covered.

The BJP MLA, Mr G. Kishan Reddy, asked how much budget had been allocated for desilting sewer lines and how many kilometres of lines had actually been desilted. The Congress MLA from Jubilee Hills, Mr Vishnuvardhan Reddy, said that the water and drainage lines were leaking at several places in his constituency and that the drainage water was getting mixed with drinking water.

The TD MLC, Mr Ibrahim Masqati, said that the city had become worse than a village. “My house is not getting water on alternate days. This cannot be allowed. The officials should be made accountable,” Mr Masqati said. Replying to the allegations the HMWS&SB managing director, Mr Jagdeeshwar Kumar, said that they had completed the desilting of sewer lines up to 300 km and works were in progress for the remaining 150 km of the network.

Mr Kumar said the water supply was being curtailed as the Board had stopped drawing water from Osmansagar, and that the gap of 15 million gallons a day was being adjusted from the Krishna water supply.