Hike in water charges flayed

The weekend shock administered by the Water Board has come in for severe criticism. Though the hike in water tariff was in the air for quite sometime the actual raise was a surprise. There has been a deep anguish among consumers, who feel that the burden would be backbreaking particularly for the poor and the middle class who form the chunk of the consumers.

Consumer organisations have taken strong exceptions to the steep rise in water charges and want the Board to explore other means of raising its revenue. They want the Board to cut down its transmission losses, which are now as high as 40 per cent and effectively recover the dues from defaulters, which are a staggering Rs. 520 crore.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist), Hyderabad City Committee, threatened to launch an agitation if the Board did not withdraw the hike. It asked the Board to concentrate on collecting dues of Rs.520 crore from the bulk consumers, including Rs.147 crore from government sector.

In a statement, M. Srinivas, secretary, CPI (M), city committee, said the base rate of Rs. 6 per kl for slums was unfair. The World Bank too had pointed this out in a report. In other cities the slum-dwellers were supplied water free of cost or on a subsidised rate.

Mr. Srinivas criticised the GHMC for not handing over a portion of the property tax to the Water Board as directed by the government.

V. Kamesh Babu, secretary, Federation of Associations of Colonies and Apartments (FACA) criticised the Board for increasing the charges by 67 per cent for the middle class, while raising it by just 40 per cent for the bulk consumers. Mr. Babu also opposed the decision to place the apartments in the 15 kl slab while not supplying that quantum of water.

He asked the Board to take steps to get itself declared as an emergency service so that it can be exempted from levy of commercial rate in power supply.

The Federation of Urban Citizens' Associations dubbed the hike in water charges as part of the World Bank programme. It would put an additional burden of Rs.240 crore per annum on consumers, said T. Sagar, the Federation president.

In a statement he said it would be better if the Board first collected the huge dues of Rs.520 crore from the bulk consumers instead burdening the common man.