Wednesday, Jun 01, 2005
Wednesday, Jun 01, 2005 |
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Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary | New Delhi
Sujay Mehdudia
NEW DELHI: The long-in-the-coming Sonia Vihar water treatment plant has once again failed to keep its date with Delhi. Despite an assurance by the Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, that water would start flowing from June 1, there is no sign of it and the future of the ambitious Rs. 880-crore project hangs in the balance. The multinational company Degremont is reaping a rich harvest even as the people of Delhi are coming out on the streets to protest against scarcity of water. The Delhi Government has all along maintained that water would come any day. Ms. Dikshit has promised water to the people from the Sonia Vihar plant on the floor of the Assembly and at the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) meetings despite no clear agreement being in place with the Tehri Dam authorities of the Uttaranchal Government. Ms. Dikshit had recently stated that the Union Water Resources Minister, Priya Ranjan Das Munshi, had written to the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav, to release water by May 31. In a statement, the BJP legislator from Saket, Vijay Jolly, has termed this as another attempt to mislead the people as water is a State subject and the Central Government has very little role in forcing another Government to release water to another State. "There is no news of water being released by the Tehri Dam authorities or the Uttar Pradesh Government. There was no assurance as such from either of the two and despite that Ms. Dikshit has been making false and misleading statements for some strange reason,'' he added.
Multinational company
Interestingly, the test run of the Sonia Vihar plant was undertaken last year only to benefit the multinational company. For instance, the Delhi Government has to pay Rs.8.80 crores as operation and maintenance charges to the multinational company under the agreement. This is besides the Rs. 2 lakhs per day base charges that the DJB would have to shell out to Degremont for failure to supply water to the plant. Officials point out that an investment of Rs. 800 crores at 12 per cent would fetch an interest of around Rs. 33 lakhs per day. This is apart from the Rs. 63 lakhs per day revenue loss the DJB would incur by not supplying 630 lakh kilolitresof water to the plant, taking the daily loss to Rs. 99 lakhs per day. "It is a big scam on the lines of the Enron scam at the Dhabol Power Plant in Maharashtra. The Delhi Government is guilty of investing huge sums just to benefit a multinational company and not the people of Delhi. The Delhi Government has a lot to answer for on this front when there was no agreement for supply of water,'' said the BJP leader, Harsh Vardhan.
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