Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad   

Unfit for elite, fit for ordinary?

By M. Malleswara Rao

Hyderabad July 10. Is municipal water unfit for consumption by VIPs and good only for commoners? At least this is the message coming out from official meetings and conferences participated by the Chief Minister, Ministers, and senior officials.

Bottles of mineral water dot the tables at such meetings -- even in Jubilee Hall or the conference hall in Chief Minister's block in the Secretariat where municipal water is available just for the asking. The bottled water at all official meetings is being used not as an alternative but as a complete replacement.

Capping it all, top brass of the Hyderabad Metro Water Supply and Sewerage Board itself is seen at several Secretariat meetings taking the gulp from the bottle in preference to Osmansagar/Manjira water, their home product. By doing so, the administration rejects its own creation, thereby conveying to the public that municipal water is only for the ordinary folks.

If the municipal water is not potable, why supply it to citizens? If the officials themselves have no confidence in Government water, what will be the fate of others? "If the water is so contaminated it can be routed through an `Aquaguard'," suggests a Secretariat employee.

In the Secretariat, municipal water comes through an eight-inch pipeline and emptied into a sump of 1.05 lakh gallon capacity. This is pumped onto the overhead tanks of all blocks at a huge cost everyday, but it finds no takers these days. Scores of meetings take place within the Secretariat but rarely this water is preferred. Instead, bottles appear on the tables.

This is the case with meetings outside as well. Of late, larger cans have replaced bottles in the Secretariat indicating the inroads being made by mineral water. A protocol official, when contacted about the wrong message going to the public, said they were now trying to supply loose municipal water in glasses in one corner. As far as bottles on tables were concerned, "it is a matter of convenience and taste,'' he put it.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Southern States

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• Naidu calls for war against mosquitoes
• Unfit for elite, fit for ordinary?
• It's official: Mayur Marg area puts up with stench

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu