HYDERABAD: The drinking water supply was deficient in 10 of the 17 urban local bodies (ULBs) checked by the Comptroller and Auditor General. The CAG, in its report ‘Performance Audit of implementation of 74th Constitutional Amendment Act in Telangana State’ for the year ending March 31, 2021, which was tabled in the Assembly on Thursday, said that the drinking water supply was deficient in Meerpet Corporation and Bhongir, Bodhan, Jangaon, Kamareddy, Medchal, Pedda Amberpet, Sadasivpet, Shadnagar and Wanaparthy municipalities. The shortfall ranged from 10% to 68%.
The government launched Mission Bhagiratha in 2015 for the supply of drinking water drawn from the river sources through a grid network to all households in the state. As per the project, the quantity of water to be supplied was 100 LPCD (rural areas/gram panchayats), 135 LPCD (urban areas/municipalities) and 150 LPCD (urban areas/municipal corporations). As per the Service Level Benchmarks (SLBs) fixed by the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) and recommended by the 13th and 14th Finance Commissions, water was to be supplied to households daily.
As per the SLBs, water was to be supplied at 135 LPCD (24 hours) in ULBs with 100% coverage of connections. Though water is supplied daily in nine ULBs (Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Ramagundam, Warangal, Bodhan, Jangaon, Medak, Siddipet and Wanaparthy), the duration of supply ranges between half an hour and one hour. In the remaining eight ULBs, it was noticed that in six ULBs (three municipal corporations of Meerpet and municipalities of Bhongir, Kamareddy, Medchal, Pedda Amberpet and Shadnagar) water is supplied once in two/three/six days a week.