GHMC, Water Board sit on WALTA moolah

​Hyderabad: In a blatant violation of sorts, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has been defeating the objectives of the Water, Land and Tree Act (WALTA) meant to promote water conservation and tree cover in twin cities.

According to sources, the civic body has been sitting on a cash pile of about Rs 100 crore collected from citizens in the last seven years or so, in the name of construction of Rain Water Harvesting Structures (RWHS) under the WALTA. The issue which has been in the dark has now reached Chief Secretary Shailendra Kumar Joshi, seeking a probe into the issue.

What is more curious is that the Hyderabad Metro Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMW&SB) was also found collecting to the tune of Rs 20 crore towards construction of RWHS from those applied for tap connections. Giving details of a long-drawn fight over the issue in last seven years, Forum for Good Governance (FGG) secretary M Padmanabha Reddy said, “As per Section 17 (1) of the WALTA, GHMC has to insist on construction of RWHS in all residential premises having an area of not less than 200 square meters, failing which the civic body may get such RWHS constructed and recover the cost incurred. 

Again, as per Section 17(2), permanent water and electricity connections shall be extended only after construction of RWH structures.” Taking advantage of this provision, the civic body had collected nearly Rs 100 crore from citizens while issuing permissions for constructions. However, till date, it has not delivered on the same and the RWHS are not constructed in the individual houses.

In addition to this, the water board claimed in response to an RTI application that it had collected Rs 20.65 crore under WALTA and incurred an expenditure of Rs 88.13 lakh on constructing RWHS and nothing was known about the remaining funds, he added.

It was against this backdrop, a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) had been filed in the High Court in 2012 seeking a direction to the civic body to construct the RWHS. However, the same was disposed of following the then GHMC Commissioner T Krishna Babu, in his counter-affidavit to the PIL, stating that the civic body had prepared an action plan for construction of RWHS. Also, the amounts collected from individuals towards RWHS had been deposited in the treasury of GHMC under separate head of account maintained for the same. 

Padmanabha Reddy said that the then commissioner's affidavit was just to close the PIL by giving wrong assurance. Subsequent to the disposal of the PIL, till date there is no action plan implemented and the GHMC constructed few RWHS here and there mostly in common places for visibility purpose, but not in individual houses. 

What was more shocking was that the water board officials had claimed that the board levied consultancy charges from people towards RWHS, this despite no such provision in the law. The board has no right to collect any fee under WALTA, Padmanabha Reddy said.