Special Chief Secretary for Municipal Administration and Urban Development Arvind Kumar has issued orders obliging all hotels, restaurants, fast food outlets and street vendors in the city to provide purified drinking water to customers free of charge.

Water supplied by HMWS&SB can be purified or treated water can be provided through reverse osmosis, depending on orders. Mr. Arvind Kumar instructed the GHMC Commissioner to take appropriate action in this regard.

In the event that bottles of bottled water are supplied to customers, managers are required to sell only at the maximum retail price printed on the bottle of water, as per orders.

The orders were issued in response to a complaint filed by an NGO against many hotels and restaurants in the city that sell bottled drinking water under different brands at exorbitant prices that cause inconvenience to the public, according to a department note.