Telangana Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister K T Rama Rao today said that the state government had fulfilled its promise of providing the households in the GHMC area that consumed up to 20,000 litres of drinking water per month with
free water.
Speaking at the Legislative Council, Rao began by extending his wishes for World Water Day to the other members, and said that it was a matter of great pride to him that the matter of water provision was being discussed on the occasion.
He then claimed that under the free drinking water initiative, which was
launched in January this year, more than 90% of the domestic water consumers in the GHMC area would soon be able to avail themselves of the free supply service. He added that the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) was already supplying water to the eligible households in an efficient manner, and was meeting the requirements of the residents.
"The state capital used to witness altercations over water in the past. However, under the guidance of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, the TRS regime has taken many steps to address the long-standing drinking water problems of the people. We have been able to make provisions that have reduced the chances of water scarcity till the year 2050. As a part of this effort, we are constructing a reservoir at Keshavpur at a cost of Rs 4,700 crore, and are diverting water from the Krishna through the Sunkesula reservoir by spending Rs 14,500 crore. The state's ground water level too has shot up due to our constant efforts to revive it. Further, we will be spending Rs 500 crore on the implementation of the free drinking water scheme for the residents of the GHMC area. We have worked hard to bring clean drinking water to the area's slums as well," the minister added.
"Currently, about seven lakh families using 2.29 lakh connections have benefitted from the scheme. I would urge the others to install water metres in their homes at the earliest so that they too can get free drinking water," he said.
Reiterating his appeal to the beneficiaries who were yet to install water metres in their homes, he directed them to do so through the 24 empanelled agencies by April-end, and urged them to link their Aadhar cards with their water connection documents.
KTR also informed the other members of the Council that to ease the process of the installation, the HMWS&SB had deployed 500 teams that were going on house-to-house visits to advise people on how to get the meters through the empanelled agencies in order to help them avail themselves of the free water scheme.
The government has been quite invested in implementing this much-hyped program. High-profile officials have held a series of meetings on the matter - last December, Telangana Deputy Speaker T Padma Rao Goud
met the officials of the HMWSSB and urged them to take steps to implement the free drinking water supply program, and last month, Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar directed the concerned officials to
expedite the process.