Firing yet another salvo against the coalition government, Congress leader and former Minister H.K. Patil has opposed the State Cabinet’s proposal to hike the cost of water supplied from drinking water purification plants (ATMs) from 10 paisa to 25 paisa per litre.

He argued that the proposal is against the Congress policy.

For the last one week, Mr. Patil has been opposing the decision of the government to sell 3,666 acres of land to JSW Steel. This issue has since also been picked by the BJP, which has threatened a Statewide agitation if the decision is not withdrawn.

On Saturday, Mr Patil, who was instrumental in installing drinking water purification plants across the State during his tenure as Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister in the Siddaramaiah Cabinet, wrote on the issue to Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and RDPR Minister Krishna Byre Gowda.

Govt. proposals

There are 18,000 water ATMs in the State, of which 16,000 are fully functional. With expenditure overshooting the revenue in the management of the ATMs, the government has proposed increase in water charges. The government has decided to outsource management of water purifying units by calling tenders and to move from coin-based service to smartcard system.

Stating that the proposed hike is against the ideology of the Congress, Mr. Patil said “Congress is the party for the poor”. The government has been distributing rice free of cost to Below Poverty Line families, he said, questioning the rationale behind the proposed water tariff hike.

Earlier, opposing the sale of land to JSW Steel, he argued that the government can sell land only after JSW Steel paid arrears of over ₹2,000 crore to the government and Mysore Minerals Ltd. Mr. Patil has been critical of his party colleague and Minister K.J. George for justifying the Cabinet decision.