Warangal: Manda Komuraiah Colony in the 28th division of Mahabubabad town, comprising around 300 houses, has not been getting basic amenities like electricity and water supply for the past six years. It has no roads either.
Government had allotted land to the poor in the area for constructing houses. Beneficiaries got pattas for the land. Mahabubabad municipality allotted numbers for the houses in the area that came to be known as Komuraiah Colony.
Residents of the colony charge that neither the electricity department has provided power supply nor the municipal department has extended water supply to the colony. Water is not supplied even through water tankers. There are no street lights.
People complain that they have been leading a miserable life for the past several years without minimal facilities like light and water.
Neither the previous BRS regime nor the present Congress government has bothered to provide the required facilities. Residents say they have to purchase mineral water or go to neighbouring colonies to collect water.
BRS ward councillor Kiran disclosed to Deccan Chronicle that people of the colony set up their wires and took power from the Vykunta Dhamam in the colony. Seeing the high electricity bill, at the Dhamam, officials cut power supply to even the Vykunta Dhamam. They also removed all temporary connections taken by the colony residents from the Dhamam.
Subsequently, one of the persons in the colony started a minor scale industry and took a meter to get a power supply. People of the colony began to use electricity by pulling electricity wires from this meter. They shared the electricity bill which came to around Rs 65,000 per month by collecting money from every household using the electricity.
However, after the Congress government started supplying free power up to 200 units to each household under the new Gruha Jyothi scheme in Telangana, people stopped paying for the power they consumed six months ago. Officials of the electricity department arrived at the minor scale industry and disconnected the power supply, as the electricity bill had mounted to Rs 2.65 lakh, the BRS councillor explained.
People are using long sticks to hang wires on electric power lines and drawing power to their respective houses. Using a similar contraption, they have arranged a street light atop a palm tree present in the colony.
An official of the electricity department, under condition of anonymity, said it would take Rs 15 lakh for installation of electricity poles and provide a power connection to every house along with a meter. But the department will not get any revenue from the colony because of the Gruha Jyothi scheme introduced by the state government.
People have made a proposal to officials of the municipality to invest the money required for the purpose so that the electricity supply could be restored to them. But the municipality has not come forward, councillor Kiran told DC.
Residents of the colony are continuing to blame officials for not getting electricity and water supply. They have requested the state government to intervene and resolve their problem.
