Vijayawada: Proposals for the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) to supply water 24x7 across the city are facing criticism from civic associations and political parties. Civic associations alleged that the civic body was trying to introduce round-the-clock water supply and install water meters in households to collect additional water charges.

Vijayawada city, which is on the banks of the river Krishna, has plenty of water reserves and the civic body is supplying around four hours of water to its 1,08,493 residential connections and 8,716 commercial connections.

The VMC had proposed to supply 24x7 good quality water across the city by replacing the old pipelines which had been defunct for years.

Considering the huge cost of replacing the underground lines and providing non-stop water supply, officials from the VMC are thinking of installing water meters to homes as well as commercial connections and charge as per their usage.
But these proposals met serious criticism from the public as well as political parties.

“Round-the-clock water supply is just an excuse for the VMC to install water meters and loot the public. The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation says that it was spending Rs 32.40 crores per annum on water supply across the city and collecting Rs 31 crore in the return from water tax. Which means that the VMC has agreed to bear only Rs 1.4 crores of loss, which is quite manageable," said a YSRC floor leader in Vijayawada Council Bandi Punyaseela. Left parties add that proposals of installing water meters in the city are not new.