Move to link water CAN with Aadhaar draws flak

Rajendranagar: After the government announced free water supply up to 20,000 litres post GHMC elections, the HMWS&SB now made linking of customer account number (CAN) with Aadhaar card and fixing of meters compulsory. To consolidate their stand the water body even set March 31 as the deadline for people to comply with.

"The customers will start receiving bills from April along with the previous charges of the last three months since January when the scheme was first launched. If customers want to avail the free water supply scheme then they have to link their CAN Number with Aadhaar.

Though there is no provision for slum consumers to fix meters but they too have to link their CAN numbers with the Aadhaar card before the deadline," informed Khader Mohiuddin, General Manager (Div-I), HMWS&SB.

Presently, the board is charging Rs 162 for slum connections. If they link their CAN with the Aadhaar by 31st March, they will not get bills for January, February, and March. From April they will have zero bills.

However, for domestic connections the consumers have to link their CAN with the Aadhaar besides fix meters to their connections. They would get the bills as usual excluding the quantum of free 20,000 litressupply.

Aadhaar link with CAN can be done at Mee-Sevacentres or at HMWS&SB local offices. The board is also procuring machines to facilitate Aadhaar linkage at its office premises.

The official further said, that "If the consumers fail to get their Aadhaar linked with CAN before the deadline ends on March 31, they will not be able to benefit from waiver of bills from January to March 2021. For further information they can be reached at HMWS&SB website or can contact local board offices."

However, the move by the HMWS&SB is not received well by the people and even drawing criticism from civil right activists.

"The predetermined move to fix meters shows the true intention behind implementing the free water supply scheme. Soon with the announcement of the scheme, they come up meticulously with an idea to charge for the same with a different way," said Muhammed Shoukat Ali, a resident of Rajendranagar.

"The earlier meters fixed by the board failed to perform properly. There were several complaints of faulty meters and hundreds of them even became defunct for several years. Now the board comes up with an idea to fix new meters without the assurance of durability," said Mohammed Shoeb of HussainiAlam.

Questioning the sincerity of the government towards implementing the free water supply scheme, CPM Hyderabad City secretary M Srinivas said, "It is a meticulously planned idea to privatize public water supply service in the guise of streamlining the entire process."

Reminding that the Delhi Government spend at least four years to fix meters to the taps of customers, he asked "How the HMWS&SB can complete such a huge task in just three months of time that too having 10 lakh connections in its fold of which only two lakhs are having meters to their taps."