Defaulters’ sewer lines to be severed

Oct 07, 2012 |

Hyderabad

Tags:

After disconnecting several water lines in the city, the Water Board has warned defaulters that it will disconnect even sewerage lines unless they clear the dues. The Water Board disconnected 272 water lines, both illegal connections and supply to longstanding defaulters in domestic and commercial category, between September 24 and October 6. These 272 defaulters owe the Board Rs 1.19 crore, officials said.

The Board suspects there are about 1 lakh illegal water connections and more than 1 lakh illegal sewerage connections in the city. Of the total 7.95 lakh connections in the city, more than 2 lakh house owners have not paid their bills for three months or more, working up over Rs 350 crore in dues. Sources said even 7.95 lakh is a gross underestimation of the actual number of connections.

Pointing to a gross mismatch, a source said GHMC’s property tax database said the city has nearly 13 lakh house owners or (property tax payers), while the civic body said there is scope to increase the property taxpayer base up to 15 lakh. The GHMC tax data excludes a large number of slum houses, the source said. The recent census figures, however, put the number of houses in Hyderabad at over 20 lakh. “This simply means there are a huge number of illegal water connections. Though officials claim there could be 1 lakh illegal connections, going by the tax records and census operation figures, it could well be over 2 lakh,” the source said.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/193745" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-4877d073c3b6634a9d1cc5aa9f4564c0" value="form-4877d073c3b6634a9d1cc5aa9f4564c0" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="85829342" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>