The Hindu : New Delhi News : Legislators demand drastic reduction

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 11, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Legislators demand drastic reduction

Staff Reporter

Trunk sewer development charges

NEW DELHI: Expressing `satisfaction' over the water situation in the Capital at present, the ruling and the Opposition party legislators today demanded drastic reduction in the trunk sewer development charges taken by the Delhi Jal Board as the present charges were very high. Some of the dissident legislators stayed away from the meeting on the plea that they were rarely heard and did not want to create an unpleasant situation.

The Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, who is also the chairperson of the Delhi Jal Board, had convened a meeting of East, Central, South and South-West Delhi legislators to listen to their grievances relating to water and sewer problems. Surprisingly, many of the legislators who had created a ruckus in the recent past over the acute shortage of water in their areas were seen expressing satisfaction over the water supply position. The meeting went on for the whole day with the Council of Ministers and the Jal Board members occupying centre-stage. Seated along with the Chief Minister were the Nationalist Congress Party MLA and Board member, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, Model Town MLA, Kanwar Karan Singh, Jal Board CEO, Rakesh Mohan, and other senior officials. Notable absentees were the former Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president, Subhash Chopra, former Transport Minister, Pervez Hashmi, dissident MLAs, Tarvinder Singh Marwah, Anil Bhardwaj, Vijay Lochav, Tajdar Babbar and Mukesh Sharma. "I have decided to stay away from the meting as nobody listens to the issues raised by us. We did not want to indulge in criticism of the Government from this platform. The water supply is short and erratic but there is hardly any redressal of the grievances and with the mercury set to rise, things would become worse,'' remarked Mr. Lochav.

Cutting across party lines, many of the legislators demanded that the present development charges for trunk sewer that stood at around Rs. 250 to Rs. 300 per square yard should be done away with. A new system of one-time bulk development charges on the lines of those existing in the power sector should be introduced. Ms. Dikshit promised to visit the subject during the next meeting of the Jal Board. The general complaint was that trunk sewers often remained choked and their cleaning was rarely taken up despite such a thing happening on paper. Ms. Dikshit also announced constitution of a special cell in the Jal Board to look into the problems and complaints of the MLAs.

The Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs complained about the choking of the trunk sewers in their areas and alleged that nothing was being done to solve the problem despite repeated complaints and reminders.

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