New Delhi   

Water tanker mafia ruling the roost, alleges BJP

Staff Reporter

Photo:S. Subramanium

UP IN ARMS: Members of the BJP Mahila Morcha carrying empty earthen pots and shouting slogans against Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit during a demonstration outside the Delhi Jal Board office at Jhandewalan in New Delhi on Saturday.

NEW DELHI: Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party president Harsh Vardhan on Saturday charged that water tankers that should have been providing water to residents of villages and unauthorised colonies where there are no pipelines were instead selling water to hotels, guest houses and banquet halls at the rate of Rs. 2,150 per tanker. And when they do come to the residential areas, they charge at least Rs. 500 from the residents.

Demanding that the Delhi Government effectively control the water tanker mafia and prepare a time-bound blueprint for providing sufficient water to the unauthorised colonies and villages that were facing an acute water shortage, Dr. Vardhan said the water situation has not improved and even in areas where pipelines exist.

In the unauthorised colonies and the villages, he said, the residents were largely dependent on water tankers. Of the 1,200 water tankers contracted for supply of water by the Delhi Jal Board, the BJP leader said, only about 550 belong to the Board while most of the remaining ones belong to Congress leaders. "Water from these tankers is supplied only once or twice a week -- that too in colonies where the local people are more vocal. Yet people have to spend Rs. 500 per tanker,'' he alleged.

Charging that the Chief Minister and officials working under her have full knowledge of this corrupt practice, he said that no action was taken because the tankers belong to influential people.

Dr. Vardhan said though the Jal Board had claimed that it had installed a global positioning system on some tankers to curb arbitrariness in their operators, ``the tanker mafia has deliberately made them defective. This system was installed by spending lakhs of rupees, but no action has been taken by the Jal Board against the tanker contractors who have made the system defective''.

Expressing concern at the pace at which the Jal Board is supplying water and laying sewer lines in 200 unauthorised colonies and 189 waterless villages, Dr. Vardhan said at this rate it would take 20 years to provide water and sewer facility to the 1,500 unauthorised colonies of the Capital. He said it was also a bitter truth that in the 567 unauthorised colonies regularised during the tenure of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, sewerage system had still not been provided.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Horror tales of atrocities
History, astronomy, and a monument
Debate on modes of education
AISA protest
New team for Supreme Court Bar Association
East Delhi RWAs for winding up societies
Water tanker mafia ruling the roost, alleges BJP
DDA must change working style: Report
New thermal plant for Maharashtra
Around the City
In the Capital Today

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu