Hyderabad: The sweltering heat has hit the powerful and the powerless alike. Contrary to the normal belief that the seat of power in any state would be exempted from the hardships of water and power crisis, the Andhra Pradesh Secretariat in Hyderabad, does not have clean drinking water, forcing the govt to shell out money to buy water.
Employees say the muddy water sometimes also contains insects. "The water is infested with insects, we don't even have a drop of water to drink. The water is contaminated. The tank is also very dirty," said D Srinivas, an employee.
When NDTV contacted Health Minister D Nagender, he promised to get all drinking water-coolers in the Secretariat checked. "They say some insects are there. Definitely I think we have to initiate some action if it is true," he said.
Not just safe drinking water,the cash-strapped government buys water for every other purpose as well. V.Srinivas, Secretariat employees association said,"Beyond that, we arrange water tanker, which is around 5000 litres for cleaning and washing purpose."
For a government that spoke of supplying safe bottled water even to the remotest areas, the state of the Secretariat shows the gap between promise and reality.