Illegal water connections to be regularised

Secunderabad: The Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB) decided to permit regularization of unauthorized household water connections, numbering close to 10,000 after collecting a payment of Rs 3,000 for slum dwellers and Rs 8,500 for other residents.

This was decided in a special board meeting convened last weekend. In what can be termed as music to the ears for the residents of the Secunderabad Cantonment, the SCB also plans to supply water on alternate days. Presently, water is being supplied once in four days to eight civilian wards. There are 41,000 connections in SCB limits.

S Sainath, a resident of Jalal Gardens, West Marredpally says, “This is music to the ears. Though we have a legal connection, regularizing illegal ones and more importantly supplying water on alternate days surely is heartening. My mother would be the happiest person.”

SCB owes `14 crore dues The issue of dues to the Water Board has become a thorn in the SCB’s plans. In spite of the MAUD Minister K T Rama Rao instructions to the Water Board to waive off the loan, due to bureaucratic delay, the issue is still not resolved. Officials at SCB say that SCB pays Rs 13.6 per kilo-litre whereas GHMC is charged Rs 7 per kilo-litre for water by the Water Board and this anomaly has to be looked into.