Hyderabad: While the Water Board is disconnecting supply lines and seizing assets of bill defaulters, it has failed to deal with faulty water meters that cause loss of crores every year. Even the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India, in a report, had mentioned that the Board incurred revenue loss of Rs 45 crore per month due to non-replacement of defective meters.
Currently, the Board is recovering only the minimum charges in the case of non-working meters, instead of charging double the amount. Nearly 65 per cent of the consumers, whose meters were “conveniently” not functioning or who had no meters at all, paid minimum charges irrespective of consumption.
A Water Board official said, “There are over eight lakh connections, and nearly 50 per cent are faulty. We have started billing double the average bill. The Board has not decided to replace the meters. It is the consumer who must install fit meters to avoid double billing. ”
