Chandigarh, November 29
Moving ahead on a promise it made during the Municipal Corporation (MC) elections last year, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) today tabled an agenda in the House meeting to provide 20,000 litres of water free of cost to each household per month.
AAP councillors said the agenda was accepted by Mayor Sarbjit Kaur for discussion, but the meeting could not complete as the MC chief had to leave due to personal reason. However, the Mayor told Chandigarh Tribune that any table agenda would be discussed in the House only after due approvals from the authorities concerned and a proper channel, and not just by being presented during the meeting.
Leader of Opposition and AAP councillor Yogesh Dhingra said, “We had given this table agenda to the Mayor.
There must be a zero bill for those using less than 20,000 litre of water per month. I had also raised the issue of high water charges before the UT Administrator during a meeting of the Advisory Council held recently.”
“We have been raising this issue in the House meeting. Since, people are billed heavily for water these days, there was a need to table the agenda of free water to provide them relief. Those who used to get water bills of about Rs 1,000 earlier are being asked to pay Rs 3,500-Rs 4,000 these days,” he said.
When asked the MC has taken a Rs 412-crore loan from a French firm for providing 24x7 water supply, which is to be paid via monthly bills by the consumers from 2027 onwards, Dhingra said, “Nobody needed 24x7 water supply or such a loan which has been forced on them. The corporation should have plugged leakage to save costs.”
Showing helplessness, the Mayor said, “We had earlier sent a proposal to revise the water charges, but the UT Administration had asked us to explain how we would knock off the loss. The MC is itself buying water.”
Join Whatsapp Channel of The Tribune for latest updates.