Hyderabad: For the second time, the city water Board has ext-ended its deadline for fixing meters. The board has directed consumers who have not fixed meters yet to approach the divisional office for the same, failing which it will charge double the present demand fee.
The deadline has been extended to October end as many consumers still haven’t fixed meters and the Water Board is continuing to lose revenue. The meters will be provided and fixed by the Board.
Mr G. Rameshwar Rao, director, operations and maintenance, HMWS&SB said, “Those who still continue to receive water without fixing meters post deadline will receive double the bill (consumption charge) amount. Special teams will be deployed to identify violators, HMWS&SB has a mechanism to identify supplies that is not metered. So far 23,652 applications have been received to fix meters — both from BPL and non- BPL families. This would be the last and final chance for regularising unauthorised water supply connections without fines,” he added.
The Voluntary Disclosure Scheme for regularisation of unauthorised connections had started on August 1, the deadline, which was August 31, was extended to September and now has been further extended to October end.
The Water Board MD had said out of 8.7 lakh connections in the city, only 1.6 lakh were metered and this did not include the applications received after the VDS scheme was launched.
Municipal minister K.T. Rama Rao has told the water board to “give time to customers to fix meters on their own, otherwise the Board will fix the meters and charge the amount of fixing in their bills.”
