Consumers slapped with ‘paid bills’ of last 6 months

April 27: Thousands of consumers in surrounding municipalities are regularly receiving astronomical water bills along with arrears of six months to one year despite the fact that they have been paying their water bills regularly. In spite of consumers producing water bill receipts paid by them every month, the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board is continuing to serve demand notices to them to either pay the bill amount along with arrears, ranging from `10,000 to `50,000, or their water lines would be disconnected.
Mr K. N. Srihari of Malkajgiri municipal area is one such consumer who has proof of his bill payments. “I have been served with a demand notice to pay `9,258. I went to the general manager of the Water Board in the area and showed him paid bills. There are 10,000 such cases,” he said. Enquiries by this correspondent revealed that the Water Board does not have details of all connections existing in the surrounding municipalities. Moreover, the Board does not have accurate bill payment information of consumers in peripheral areas. This is due to lack of coordination between HMWS&SB officials and the GHMC.