Water Board receives 2,000 requests for regularisation

Once regularised, these connections would generate a monthly revenue of Rs 3 cr to the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board

The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) has received 2,000 applications under the ‘Voluntary Disclosure Scheme (VDS)’ for the regularisation of illegal water connections and a similar number for one-time settlement of pending dues.

Once regularised, these connections would generate a monthly revenue of Rs 3 crore to the board, said P  S Suryanarayana, director of Revenue. These include commercial and domestic connections.  

With respect to pending dues, he said, the Cantonment Board, South Central Railway and Nehru Zoological Park had come forward to settle them before March 31, to claim the benefit of interest waiver accrued on the dues.

The board is also expecting Election Commision’s nod for its plan to organise mobile camps as part of the VDS drive. “We may likely get the permission from the EC in the next two days,” he said.

This, according to the HMWS&SB, would help reach out to a reasonable number of defaulters and collect the dues, besides educating local residents against holding illegal water supply and sewerage connections.

The VDS scheme for regularisation of illegal water supply and sewerage connections was introduced initially in 2004, and for the second time in 2010. In 2010, around 7,000 applications were received by the board.

The HMWS&SB, which has fixed the March 31 deadline for accepting the applications, has no plans to extend the deadline. It was opened to public from February this year. Post this, it would book criminal cases against illegal connection holders.

In tune with these ad hoc measures, the board was booking Police cases and seizure of property from defaulters. According to Rao, the police had arrested 10 defaulters last week after it had levelled cases against them.

The board is confronted with pending dues worth Rs 600 crore till date, including Rs 200 crore from the government. It supplies around 340 million gallons of water every day and is unable to recognise revenue for 30 per cent of the supplied water, mostly due to illegal connections and delayed payments.