AAP to extend it’s free water scheme to NDMC areas

Tribune News Service

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New Delhi, October 22

In a major move, the Delhi government today decided to extend the scheme of giving free water of 20,000 litre per month to the residents of the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) area with retrospective effect.

“So far, people of entire Delhi, except those living in the NDMC area, benefited from this scheme. Now we have decided to retrospectively implement the same in the NDMC area,” said Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

“The scheme will be implemented from the same date it was implemented in the rest of Delhi,” he said.

Delhi is divided into three urban regions — the three Municipal Corporations of Delhi (MCD), the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), and the Delhi Cantonment Board.

The NDMC area includes VVIP zones, including Lutyens area, Parliament House, Rashtrapati Bhavan, North Block, South Block and the Supreme Court.

“The old water bills of people living there will be refunded and the Delhi government will pay subsidy amount to the NDMC,” said Kejriwal.

Immediately after coming to power, the Aam Aadmi Party had decided to give free water upto 20,000 litre per month to every household in Delhi as promised in its poll manifesto.

The cabinet also approved a proposal to increase the capacity of an under-construction hospital in Ambedkar Nagar from 200 beds to 600 beds.

“Earlier, we were making a 200-bed hospital at the cost of Rs 125 crore. But now we will have 600 beds at a total cost of Rs 181 crore,” he said.

This would bring down the per bed cost from Rs 62 lakh to Rs 13.75 lakh, he said.

The AAP government also announced its decision to make permanent ‘ghats’ on the Yamuna bank by 2017.

Kejriwal said the process of making concrete ghats was already started in light of the upcoming Chhath Pooja.

“All ghats will be made concrete by next year’s Chhath Pooja,” he added.