Telangana: Pay water dues through OTS scheme, avail interest waived off

HYDERABAD: To clear long standing water dues, the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) has launched a ‘one-time settlement’ (OTS) scheme, for the defaulters.
Telangana minister for municipal administration & urban development, K Tarakarama Rao on Tuesday, launched a campaign by releasing the handouts and wall posters, to educate the consumers on OTS scheme. The HMWS&SB managing director, M Dana Kishore and senior Water Board officials also at present.
According to HMWS&SB official records, nearly Rs 500 crore water dues are pending with the defaulters, for the past decade. The water board repeatedly asked the defaulters to pay the long standing pending dues, to overcome the water board from the financial crisis, but they fell on duff ears.
Under the newly launched OTS scheme, the water board has announced to waive off the interest, which accumulated on the arrears. “This scheme had already launched on August 1 and continued up to September 15, and the consumers have cleared their dues by availing this opportunity,” according to a senior HMWS&SB official.
The Water Board is spending Rs 40 per kilo litre (KL) for purifying the water and also spending another Rs 50 to 70 crore for power consumption to draw the raw water from Godavari and Krishna drinking water sources, located at a distance of 180 kilometres away from the city.
Currently, the water board is supplying a total of 480 million gallons of water per day (MGD) to meet the demand for city, GHMC periphery and areas, abutting the ‘Outer Ring Road’ (ORR).