Kejri announces one-time waiver of water bill arrears

New Delhi, August 27 

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The government will waive water arrears of consumers who live in colonies categorised E, F, G and H and have functional domestic meters, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Tuesday. 

Delhi’s colonies are categorised from A-H. Officials said A-D category colonies are considered as middle and upper middle residential areas. ‘A’ category colony includes those in Maharani Bagh, Chanakyapuri and Golf Links. 

Addressing a press conference here, the Chief Minister said 10.5 lakh people living in these colonies will be benefitted by this move. 

He said late payment surcharge will also be waived off of those consumers who get their functional metres installed by November 30 this year. 

For ‘A’ and ‘B’ category colonies, 100 per cent Late Payment Surcharge (LPSC) will be waived while 25 per cent of principal arrear will also be waived. People living in ‘C’ category colonies will also get 50 per cent waiver on their principal arrear and 100 per cent LPSC waiver, he said. In ‘D’ category colonies, people will get waiver of 100 per cent LPSC and 75 per cent principal arrear. 

“We are expecting to earn Rs 600 crore through this scheme. This is an attempt to clean our books. The arrears have accumulated not just due to non payment of bills but also due to the fault on DJB’s part including in the billing system,” said Kejriwal. 

Asked about “injustice” to those paying their water bills on time, the Chief Minister said, “We do not have to go for another such waivers in the future.” 

There has been a 25 per cent increase in the number of new water connections since the AAP come to power. Unmetered water connections have come down to 1.5 lakh from 3 lakh in the last five years, said Kejriwal said. 

There are 1,769,981 water consumers in E to H category colonies, while there are around 3.44 lakh consumers in the D category colonies. 

The government said that in A to B category colonies, 70,082 consumers will be able to avail the scheme benefits while in C category colonies, there are 76,125 consumers. The DJB now has achieved 95 per cent of the billing efficiency from 80 per cent and expected to increase the same to 98 per cent soon. “Our government has undertaken a major initiative — distribution of tabs for all meter readers enabling them to take photos with location identification,” said the Chief Minister. — PTI

‘BID TO CLEAN BOOKS’

We do not have to go in for another such waivers in the future. This is an attempt to clean our books. The arrears accumulated not just due to non-payment of bills but also due to the fault on DJB’s part, including in the billing system. Arvind Kejriwal, Chief Minister

BJP SAYS IT IS A ‘LOLLIPOP’ FOR DELHIITES AHEAD OF ASSEMBLY POLLS

• The Delhi BJP on Tuesday said Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s announcement to waive water arrears was a “lollipop” for Delhiites ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections.
• They alleged that half of the residents in the city were deprived of piped water supply. Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Goel said that he would conduct raids to “expose” the CM’s claim that his government has checked the activities of water tanker mafia. 
• In a major sop ahead of the Assembly polls due early next year, Kejriwal announced waving water arrears of consumers in colonies categorised E, F, G and H covering majority of the middle class households. 
• “Kejriwal thinks he can fool the people and make announcements of freeing everything hoping to win Assembly elections. It is because he is trying to hide his failures of the past 4.5 years,” said Goel. He alleged that the announcement was made after it collected crores of rupees as arrears with penalties.