Residents of Secunderabad Cantonment, who struggled to get a pot of drinking water this summer, are in for a rude shock from the authorities now. Officials have suddenly woken up from slumber and are issuing water bills as old as a decade. Cantonment residents were shocked to receive bills ranging from Rs 5,000 to over Rs 50,000, including arrears from 2001.
The water tariff from 2001 to October 2008 has been calculated at the rate of Rs 86 per month (old rate) and thereafter at Rs 145 per month for 15kl of water (revised rate with effect from October 2008) till date. What’s more, the consumers are being asked to make the bill payments within a week from date of receipt of the bill notice!
Expressing their ire against officials, residents said the Board should first supply water and then ask for bill payments. There are nearly one lakh illegal water connections in the Cantonment area compared to only 16,000 legitimate connections as per the data available with the Board. “Who should pay? Those who are already paying, even as illegal connection holders go scot free?” asks Sunil Bhagwat, a resident of Gun Rock. BHEL (Colony) Enclave general secretary Arjun Rao said, “How do they expect anyone to pay at one go? We have been demanding water bills since 2005. They give us the excuse that they don't have staff.”
Progressive Housing Soci-ety president, K. Murali-dhar Rao says, “Quite often there is no staff to collect bill payments at SCB office so people have stopped making payments on their own. No official from Cantonment has visited colonies to check whether water is being supplied or have ever enquired whether bills are being paid. Now, all of a sudden, they want consumers to pay 10 years' bills at a time which is not justified.”
SCB water superintendent Raj Kumar admits that the Board is at fault for not serving bills regularly. But, he says the bill issuance has to start at some point of time. Also, the citizens should act responsibly and make payment at Board office without waiting for bills. “We will give them the facility of three instalments to make payments,” he informs.