As the entire city is suffering from water scarcity, VIPs enjoy getting free water tankers from the Hyderabad Water Board. The free tanker services which were introduced to benefit the need of the city’s poorer sections are now enjoyed by the VIP’s.
As per the official Website of the Water Board, 124 tankers were used to cater to the VIPs. 49 tankers were sent to Owasi Hills (under the category ‘slums’), 7 tankers were sent to former minister Geetha Reddy in Marredpally, seven for Nampally MLA Jaffar Hussain, seven for the NTR Estate at Asifnagar, 28 for the CM’s Camp at Banjara Hills, while quite a few free water tankers also go to religious sites.
“The Hyderabad Water Board claims on its web site that they are supplying 13,356 free water tankers per week. But for a common man, even after paying, has to wait for more than a month to get a water tanker.”
“There are no water pipelines in our locality, we are striving hard to get water to drink. The board officials don’t response to our request. Many times even after making several calls and rounds to the water-board office we don’t get water tankers” said Ahmed, a resident of Shaheen Nagar.
“We need to wandered around to get a recommendation of corporates and MLA’s and after hundreds of rounds to water-board office, we will then be able to get water tanker, said Majid a resident of Mughalpura.
When contacted, a senior official from the Water Board’s revenue department said, “Free tankers are provided on two counts, one is for localities where Board pipelines have not been installed, and second for economically poor regions.”
He said Hyderabad has more than 1,000 slums which do not have storage capacity. “On one day water is supplied through the pipeline and the next day by tankers. On the request of many political representatives, tankers are sent to their constituencies,” the official said.