Polling officials and those on security duty who reached the collection and distribution centre set up at St. Mary’s Higher Secondary School, Pattom, on Monday were dismayed to find that a Kudumbashree stall there was selling bottled water for ₹15, that is ₹2 more than the price of bottled drinking water in the State.
The government had last year capped the retail price of bottled drinking water at ₹13 a litre.
A security personnel deployed to a booth in the city flagged the overcharging by the Kudumbashree.
Another person who too paid ₹15 for a bottle of drinking water said the Kudumbashree should not have sold packaged water at a price exceeding the MRP.
However, the Kudumbashree district mission, when contacted, said they had a fixed menu that included breakfast, tea, snacks, dinner, and so on, but bottled water was not a part of it in keeping with the green protocol for elections.
However, when a number of people at the Pattom distribution centre asked for water owing to the sweltering heat, the Kudumbashree cafe unit purchased bottled water for ₹15 a litre from a nearby shop and sold it without any profit.
Bottled water was not sold at any of the other distribution centre nor had any complaints been made, the district mission said.
