Water board ordered to pay Rs 90,000 to consumer

HYDERABAD: A district consumer forum here has directed Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) to refund Rs 80,808 and pay Rs 10,000 as compensation to a consumer for converting water connection from domestic to commercial category without any prior notice. The bench also directed the water board to convert the connection again to the domestic category and pay another Rs 5000 towards the cost of the complaint.

Shobha Gupta, the complainant, submitted that she had a water connection for her residential building, which is two storey building, in Banjara Hills since 1994. In 2002, Gupta said that she had rented out a portion of the ground floor to run a shop and the remaining is being used for residential purpose. She said that in 2008, monthly water consumption charges were Rs 600 and gradually were increased to Rs 3,366 by 2014.

She said that in September 2014, she was sent a bill for little over 1.70 lakh following which she made a representation asking to convert the water connection to domestic but received no reply. The following month she was sent a bill for Rs 1.48 lakh and again she a requested for a change in the type of connection. She claimed that she was forced to pay Rs 50, 000 towards dues after water board officials threatened to disconnect the connection.

The water board, in their written version, denied the allegations mentioned in the complaint and said that as the complainant rented out of portion in the premises, it will be treated as commercial as per the board’s norms.

During the trial, the bench noticed that the General Manager of the circle wrote to the Chief General Manager recommending rectifying the wrong calculation. The bench said that being public sector organisations, they are not supposed to mislead the statutory authorities which is nothing but a misrepresentation of the facts and directed them to refund the extra charges collected and convert the connection.