The Hindu : New Delhi News : Ex-CEO's term marked by controversies

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Wednesday, Apr 25, 2007
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New Delhi

Ex-CEO's term marked by controversies

Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

Issue of DJB privatisation had hogged the limelight

NEW DELHI: The registration of a corruption case against former Delhi Jal Board Chief Executive Officer Rakesh Mohan by the Central Bureau of Investigation has raised several eyebrows here in the Capital as he had been handpicked for the job in August 2004 following his return from Central deputation because of his past work in the organisation.

Later during his short tenure of less than a year and a half, a number of controversies surrounded the Delhi Jal Board. It was during this period that the issue of alleged privatisation of he Board hogged the limelight. So much so that in February 2005 two non-government organisations, Rashtriya Mukti Morcha and the All India Crime Prevention Society, had filed a complaint with the CBI seeking registration of a FIR on the ground that a conspiracy had been hatched to siphon off Rs. 40.5 crore in the garb of valuation of fixed assets of the Board at much below their original value.

Along with then Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Delhi Chief Minister Madan Lal Khurana, the leaders of the two organisations, Ravinder Kumar and Sandhya Sharma, had alleged under-valuation of the DJB assets and reported attempts by the Delhi Government to privatise water generation, treatment and supply in the Capital under pressure from the World Bank. To cite a point on how the valuation was done, they said while the Jal Board headquarters at Jhandewalan had been valued at Rs. 80 lakh, the real value was in excess of Rs 100 crore.

Plan stalled

Then it was during Mr. Mohan's tenure that the Union Finance Ministry had stalled the plans of Delhi Jal Board officials to undertake a 10-day "official visit" to the United States for studying issues related to water and sewage management. Though the file had been passed by the Delhi Government, the Union Ministry rejected the request stating that the visit was not warranted. Incidentally, no DJB members had been made part of this important visit.

Mr. Mohan's short tenure in DJB also witnessed another controversy over alleged denial of information to applicants under the Right to Information Act. In November 2005, Arvind Kejriwal of Parivartan had accused the Board of withholding documents relating to privatisation of the Delhi Jal Board and the proposed reforms under the World Bank-sponsored programme.

He had charged that in response to an application filed by him in July 2005 under the Delhi Right to Information Act, the Jal Board had only made available for inspection selected papers despite an assurance by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit to put everything relating to the World Bank programme and privatisation open for public scrutiny and on the water utility's website.

And even after he filed an appeal with the Public Grievance Commission, which then directed the Jal Board to provide all information within 12 days, Mr. Kejriwal had alleged the DJB tried to hide information and he was "offered inspection of only four files containing photocopies of a very small number of pages and told there were no more documents".

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