Kudumbashree’s bottled water costs ₹2 more

Government had capped price at ₹13 a litre

The Kudumbashree canteen selling food items to polling officials at the St. Mary’s school in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday.

Polling officials and those on security duty who reached the collection and distribution centre set up at St. Mary’s Higher Secondary School, Pattom, on Monday were dismayed to find that a Kudumbashree stall there was selling bottled water for ₹15, that is ₹2 more than the price of bottled drinking water in the State.

The government had last year capped the retail price of bottled drinking water at ₹13 a litre.

A security personnel deployed to a booth in the city flagged the overcharging by the Kudumbashree.

Another person who too paid ₹15 for a bottle of drinking water said the Kudumbashree should not have sold packaged water at a price exceeding the MRP.

However, the Kudumbashree district mission, when contacted, said they had a fixed menu that included breakfast, tea, snacks, dinner, and so on, but bottled water was not a part of it in keeping with the green protocol for elections.

However, when a number of people at the Pattom distribution centre asked for water owing to the sweltering heat, the Kudumbashree cafe unit purchased bottled water for ₹15 a litre from a nearby shop and sold it without any profit.

Bottled water was not sold at any of the other distribution centre nor had any complaints been made, the district mission said.