AAP's New Year gift to Delhi, 20k litre free water per connection

New Delhi: Delhi has received its New Year gift as the Aam Aadmi Party government fulfiled its promise to provide 20,000 litres of free water every month starting from January 1, 2014 to all connections having functional meter. After an hour-long meeting with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday, the Delhi Jal Board announced 670 litres of free water per day to each household but experts believed that it's a bad idea.

The decision was taken at a meeting held at Kejriwal's residence owing to his ill-health. The newly appointed Delhi Jal Board CEO Vijay Kumar announced the decision and said, "All the domestic consumers having metered connection will get 20 kilolitres of water free of cost from January 1. We will not even levy any existing charges such as water cess and sewerage charge."

He, however, said if the consumption limit crosses 20 kilolitres, then the consumer will have to pay for the entire consumption and other related charges.

The Chief Minister's office later disclosed that there will be a 10 per cent increase in tariff for those consuming more than 20 kilolitres who will be required to pay the full bill amount. Officials said the increase is for various customers including the household connections, industrial and bulk consumers.

Defending the decision, Kejriwal tweeted, "It is the duty of any responsible government to provide "lifeline water" to its citizens. We may debate the quantum but can we argue against the principle?"

He also said, "It is wrongly being said that our decision is for three months. Decision is for good. But obviously financial calculations are for balance financial year. Do you know the costs involved? Rs 160 crore per annum and just Rs 40 crore for the balance of present financial year."

People living in areas under New Delhi Municipal Council and Delhi Cantonment Board will not be included under the scheme. Officials said a decision on extending the benefit to residents of group housing societies will be taken later.

After Delhi government announced the decision, AAP leader Kumar Vishwas asserted, "There is no time limit for free water supply, we will continue with this."

However, Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit took a dig at the AAP government saying, "It's not about giving 700 litres of free water. It's whether you will be able to provide free water to all. They have said in their manifesto that 50 per cent of Delhi's population do not have water. So they must first give the water to those who don't have it and then think about giving it free to others."

Even though Kejriwal is confident about implementing the free water scheme, experts were not convinced by it. Himanshu Thakkar, a water expert, said, "If you use one litre above 700 litre, you have to pay for the full amount. So people could try and tinker the meters so their meters always show less than 700 litre."

Another water expert Manoj Misra said, "140 litres per person per day is way above what normal people use. This should be just the half of this and a resource like water should never be given free. People tend to waste it."

Currently, the Delhi Jal Board has around 18 lakh domestic consumers out of which 9 lakh have metered connection. The water agency has decided to launch an awareness drive to encourage remaining 9 lakh consumers to install water metres and bring "accountability into the system".

"The consumer can use any quantity of water daily. But the total monthly consumption should not go beyond 20 kilo litres (20,000 litres) to avail the benefit," said an official.

He said Group Housing Societies have been kept out of the scheme as they are bulk water consumers.

Currently, DJB supplies around 800 million gallons of water daily in the city.

The official said a sizeable number of consumers have unauthorised water connection from where the agency does not get any revenue.

It is not immediately clear whether government will charge for water being supplied to over 1,600 unauthorised colonies across the city.

The promise has been kept but how well it shall be implemented will be a litmus test for the aam aadmi's chief minister.

(With additional information from PTI)