Aadhaar seeding: Hyderabad\'s free drinking water scheme faces glitches

Hyderabad: The Aadhaar seeding to avail 20 kilo-litres of free drinking water per month has been progressing at snail's pace as thousands of consumers have transferred the ownership of their water connections.

The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) has noticed that several consumers, despite changing the ownership of houses as far back as two decades ago, did not change their names on the water connection and this continued in the name of the first landlord who has sold the house.

As per the board, this has become a herculean task for them. Thousands of consumers are approaching it seeking a solution on Aadhaar seeding.

Till date, over 50,000 consumers reported to the board that they are facing such problems and that they will not be able to avail the scheme as the water board has made Aadhaar seeding mandatory.

Consumers would not be eligible for the free drinking water until the Aadhaar linkage completed. Board officials said that they would write to the government to provide a one-stop solution for such grievances. They said based on the government's reply, they would dedicate a day to resolve such grievances.

For the convenience of consumers, the HMWS&SB is operating a customer relationship management centre (155313) which functions in two shifts -- from 9 am to 9 pm.

The approved rates of meters supplied by metering firms, including cost of meter, GST and fixing charges are Rs 1,498 for 15-mm size pipelines and Rs 2,147 for 20-mm size connections.