The Hindu : New Delhi News : Sheila pulls up Jal Board, says no to hike proposal

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 09, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Sheila pulls up Jal Board, says no to hike proposal

By Sujay Mehdudia

NEW DELHI, JULY 8. Describing the performance of Delhi Jal Board as "very poor'', the Delhi Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, has rejected its proposal to effect an increase in water supply charges in the Capital till its "performance'' improves. She is understood to have reprimanded the officials, especially the engineers, for the bad situation on the water supply front.

"I have made it very clear that I will not allow any kind of hike in water tariff till the performance of the Board improves. I am not happy with the way things have shaped up and this is unacceptable. The engineers are not performing up to the mark and overall a lot of improvement needs to be done. First, they should give me valid reasons and explain to the people of Delhi why they want to hike charges,'' Ms. Dikshit told The Hindu.

The Delhi Jal Board has been seeking a hike in the water supply charges for the past almost one year and it was held back due to the Assembly and Lok Sabha polls. However, now Ms. Dikshit has made it very clear that she will not budge from her stand on the issue till there was a vast improvement in the working of the Board. The thrust, she reportedly said, should be on first putting in place the infrastructure for making the billing system efficient and up to date. "There is an urgent need to first meter all the water supply, as any hike without it would virtually make no difference in the revenue collections to the Board,'' she added.

It is understood that Ms. Dikshit has been very upset with the running of the Board and its affairs and has told the officials in no clear terms that focus should be on efficiency and professionalism. She is believed to have pointed out that the grievance redressal system of the Board needs to be improved and the complaints need to be looked into at the local level with more professionalism. The Chief Minister, it is learnt, was sore over the quality of water being supplied to the people in various parts of Delhi and said this aspect needs to be looked into seriously. Interestingly, during the meeting of the Board on July 6, the Chief Minister departed from the agenda and asked the officials to first answer her queries that were getting longer and bigger with each passing day.

The meeting was also attended by the Deputy Chairperson, Anjali Rai, members Ramvir Singh Bidhuri and Kanwar Karan Singh, both MLAs, the Delhi Jal Board CEO, P.K.Tripathi, Member (Finance), Rajiv Lal and Member (Administration), S.P. Marwah, along with other senior officials. The issue of cholera deaths in Sarita Vihar, South Delhi, due to consumption of poor quality of drinking water also came up for discussion but officials pointed out that no such incident took place due to water contamination, a point that was supported by Mr. Bidhuri who said he had not heard any complaint from the people in this connection.

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