Hyderabad: The Secunderabad Cantonment Board has begun serving legal notices on big water bill defaulters. It comes with a warning that the properties of “chronic defaulters” would be attached if the arrears were not cleared at the earliest. The SCB authorities are busy making attempts to collect water bill arrears, some of which have been pending for over a decade.
About 20,000 have illegal connections have been sent with red letter notices since Dec. Till date, 1,800 water connections have been disconnected.
The water arrears have mounted to Rs 40 crore over the years and the SCB aims to retrieve Rs 20 crore during the month-long drive. The charge for regularisation of water connections for slums is Rs 5,000 and for colonies Rs 15,000. There are 36 official and seven identified slums in the Cantonment. The SCB owes more than Rs 20 crore to the Board. The daily requirement is 53 lakh gallons for 4.3 lakh population.
