Date:20/01/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/01/20/stories/2008012059170100.htm

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Water charges: High Court squashes GO

Staff Reporter

Huge relief for flat residents in city ; HMWSSB classification termed ‘illegal’

HYDERABAD: Apartment dwellers in the city can breath easy. They need not shell down hefty water charges now. This follows the High Court striking down the GO which treated individual apartment in a building as a unit for purpose of billing by the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWSSB).

Justice C.V. Nagarjuna Reddy termed the classification made by the Board as ‘illegal and arbitrary’ and ordered the adjustment of excess amount paid in the future bills.

The court passed the orders while dealing with a writ petition filed by BJP MLA G. Kishen Reddy and five apartment welfare associations.

The Board got the GO issued for increasing its revenue by calculating the individual apartment as a separate unit and fixing the charges from a minimum of Rs. 90 to a maximum of Rs. 3,200 per apartment resulting in water bills of apartments increasing manifold irrespective of usage of the quantity of water.

Adjustment of amount

The court held that the billing has to be on the actual usage and not unit-wise when there is a single connection to the entire building.

It further stated that if payments were made by apartment welfare associations as per the GO the amount should be adjusted in future bills.

The Board has to collect the bills as per the previous system only, the court ordered.