The Hindu : New Delhi News : SMS 7575 for water

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 11, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

SMS 7575 for water

By Sujay Mehdudia

NEW DELHI, APRIL 10. Consumers in water-starved areas no longer need to make frantic phone calls for their water needs or even to get their grievances redressed. Since the beginning of this month, the Delhi Jal Board has put in place an SMS system for those wanting water at their doorstep. In addition, call centres are also being set up to attend to water-related grievances and take action in a time bound manner.

According to the Delhi Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, consumers would no longer need to call up the DJB offices or officers at various levels for their water needs this coming summer. All that consumers would be required to do is to send an SMS on 7575 for water tankers or water supply in their area and immediate action would be taken by the authorities.

The Chief Minister also informed that the DJB was in the process of setting up call centres to register the grievances of consumers relating to water problems including breakdowns, lack of proper supply and deployment of tankers in their respective areas. These call centres would take down complaints from the consumers and then inform them about the status of the complaint and how much time it would take to address their problem. These call centres would be in touch with the local officials and get a constant feedback on what the ground situation was.

Apart from deploying nearly 1,200 water tankers round the clock, the Chief Minister informed that certain other measures were also being put in place.

Stating that the DJB could even think of increasing the number of tankers for supplying drinking water, the Chief Minister informed that adequate measures would be taken after assessment of the situation during summer. Stating that there was shortage of water in the Capital, Ms. Dikshit said being dependent on other States for this commodity, Delhi Government was trying to tie up with other State Governments for supply of raw water. She said the Government would also take up the matter regarding release of Delhi's share by Haryana and it would be ensured that proper supply chain is maintained. Asserting that all the States had the responsibility to help Delhi out of this situation, Ms. Dikshit said every year nearly five-lakh people land up in the Capital adding to the population and putting pressure on the civic as well as the other infrastructure. Nearly 35 per cent of the population is from the neighbouring States and it becomes their duty to ensure proper supply of water and power to Delhi in view of it being the National Capital as well as mini India.

However, she rued that Delhi had to go with a begging bowl to other States to address its needs. Claiming that the DJB had done a lot of good work during the past six years, Ms. Dikshit said the availability of water had increased substantially but a lot of improvement was needed. Apart from this, leakages on the system had been brought down considerably and old pipelines had been replaced with new ones. "Water is one commodity that cannot be handed over to the private sector. This is something that affects the common man as well as the rich equally and there is no way that its distribution or generation would be given to the private sector,'' she added.

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