The Delhi High Court has directed the Central government to decide if Drinking Water and Waste Water Management Sectors can be included under the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS). Justice Prateek Jalan asked the Department of Financial Services (DFS), Ministry of Finance to take a decision on the representations made by two entities — Water Alliance India and Nangloi Water Services Pvt Ltd — and communicate its decision within three weeks. ECLGS was introduced under the Atmanirbhar Bharat package of Government to ameliorate the credit crunch and reduce the cost of funds for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and other business enterprises, so that they can tide over the COVID-19 crisis.
Water Alliance India and Nangloi Water Services had moved the high court claiming that exclusion of water sector, which is part of MSMEs, from availing the benefits under ECLGS violated the fundamental rights conferred under Article 19 and Article 14 of the Constitution. While Water Alliance India claims to be an organised group of MSMEs involved in diverse fields in the water sector, Nangloi Water Services oversees improvement and revamping of existing water supply system on behalf of the Delhi Jal Board.
The Central government counsel told the high court that the representations made by the two entities would be disposed of within four weeks. The two entities urged the court to reduce the timeline within which the representations have to be decided by the Centre as the ECLGS expires on September 30 and no other relief was sought at this stage. “The DFS is directed to dispose of the representations and communicate its decision to the petitioners within three weeks thereafter,” the judge said in July 29 order.
In their petition filed through advocate Arjun Syal, the two petitioners had asserted that MSMEs and other small businesses involved in the drinking water and waste water management sectors have been excluded from the scheme without any rational basis, in spite of water being an essential commodity and drinking water and waste water management sectors being of public utility. In the absence of ECLGS being extended to them, Drinking Water and Waste Water Management Sectors would be compelled to shut operations which would lead to an adverse impact on its workforce as well as the public at large, the petition submitted.
ECLGS was modified, and its scope was expanded time and again to include sectors which were stressed on account of the ever-changing impact of COVID-19, and second, the KV Kamath Committee report only provided an illustrative and non-exhaustive list of 26 sectors to avail the benefit of the ECLGS, the petition said. Further, since the construction sector, of which drinking water and waste water management is a major component, has already been given the benefit under ECLGS, the latter also be afforded the same benefit, it submitted.
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