The Hindu : New Delhi News : BJP for special Assembly session

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 29, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

BJP for special Assembly session

Staff Reporter

To discuss deteriorating power, water situation

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday asked Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit to convene a special one-day session of the Delhi Assembly to discuss the deteriorating power and water situation in the Capital. Addressing a press conference, Delhi BJP president Harsh Vardhan said all documents relating to privatisation of power and the proposed reforms in the water sector should be laid on the table of the House so that the elected representatives were able to get a first-hand knowledge of how the interests of the people had been sold by the Sheila Dikshit Government.

Asserting that his party would strongly oppose any move for privatisation of the water sector, Dr. Vardhan said recent facts that came out clearly indicated that things would become very difficult for the middle class and the poor in Delhi. He warned that if privatisation of water was carried out than an average resident would have to pay Rs.990 and the slum dwellers Rs.200 as water bill every month. "Even after this there is no guarantee that people will get sufficient water. If the draft of privatisation prepared by the World Bank and the private consultants were implemented then consumers would have to pay one-third of their earnings to pay their water bills. The Government is concealing the documents on privatisation in the same manner as was done during privatisation of power sector and that is why a one-day session should be convened to discuss all these issues."

Dr. Vardhan said the Delhi Government had got the Delhi Water Supply & Sewerage Project prepared on the orders of the World Bank. It had been named "Towards 24x7''. Under the influence of the private consultants, Delhi would be divided into 21 zones and the responsibility of water supply in every zone would be handed over to a foreign company, he alleged. The Delhi Government would pay heavy management fee to the companies in every zone for the supply of water. The Government had undertaken to pay Rs.6 crores annually as management fee to the private water companies for the supply of water in one zone, he said. A total of 84 experts would be appointed, four in each zone. The BJP leader said the Government would pay Rs.126 crores annually on the account of management fees and each expert would be paid a salary of 24,400 dollars per month. The companies would be paid bonus and engineering consultancy fee by the Government for suggesting additional steps for improvement, he added.

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