HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) filed criminal cases against water-filling station in-charges, tanker owners and drivers for misusing free water tankers and diverting them to Katedan Industrial Area.
They were selling the free water for Rs 850 per tanker in the industrial area. On a daily basis, they were reportedly diverting 550 water tankers, resulting in a loss of Rs 4-5 lakh per day and Rs 50 lakh per month to the Water Board. Criminal cases were registered under Sections 409, 429 of the IPC in Kalapathar police station by the Vigilance Wing of the HMWS&SB.
Departmental action is also being initiated against the employees of HMWS&SB working in Bahadurpura section of O&M Division-I. It was found that almost 600 free water tankers were diverted from MRG filters filling station, Bahadurpura section, O&M Division-I.
HMWS&SB Managing Director M Dana Kishore instructed the Vigilance Wing of HMWS&SB to find out the reason for the huge deployment of free tankers. The Vigilance Wing, during the investigation, found that almost 550 free water tankers are being diverted.
They took photographs and videos of the tanker diversion and verified the previous records with the filling station. They also found that the two checking meters of the filling station were tampered and the same was reported to MD Kishore by the Vigilance Wing.
He directed them to carry out a detailed inquiry on the issue and finally it is found that almost Rs 4-5 lakh was being lost due to this diversion and monthly almost 15,000 tankers were diverted by the tanker owners/drivers of the filling station.
It was found that the filling station in-charges colluded with the tanker owners for wrongful diversion. Based on that, the Vigilance Wing continuously deployed personnel for field verification and it reduced to daily 20-30 free water tanker trips from 600 daily free water tanker trips and saved almost Rs 50 lakh each month. Dana Kishore also instructed them to file a criminal case against the culprits involved in the illegal diversion of free water tankers.