The proposal to increase water tariff has spared no one, not even slum dwellers. No category of consumer escapes the hike as the proposal is based on the full cost recovery model. "We have no policy which mandates or suggests to provide free water or give a special subsidy to the poor or to save them from a hike in tariff. The proposal has no separate slab for the slums and all the slabs will see a hike. The supply of water is highly subsidised anyway. People who use a small amount of water are put together in one slab which is less expensive than the others," said a senior official in the BWSSB.

The State has no policy of a special subsidy for users who use a small amount of water. The Karnataka Urban Drinking Water and Sanitation Policy, 2002, is the only policy document there is and it advocates full cost recovery from users in the form of tariff. The BWSSB when structuring tariffs has used this policy as a basis. “Given that piped water supply is expensive, it is necessary both for natural resource sustainability and commercial viability of operations to recover from the users of water, the full cost of providing the service,” the urban drinking water policy says clearly.

The World Health Organisation has recognised six kilo litres of water as the minimum standard requirement per month for a family. In South Africa, water usage up to this limit is free. Hyderabad has a provision of a separate slab for the urban poor to save them from the burden of increasing costs, but in Bengaluru, the BWSSB has no provision for supplying free water. Its lowest consumption slab, of 0-8000 litres, pays Rs 6 per KL.