Kejriwal delivers on promise: 20 kilolitres of free water but only if you don't exceed usage
Ghaziabad/New Delhi: Within 48 hours of coming to power, the Aam Aadmi Party government on Monday delivered on its promise of supplying free water of 667 litres a day to each household but tempered it with a 10 per cent across-the-board hike in tariff.
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After an hour-long meeting of Delhi Jal Board chaired by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Board CEO Vijay Kumar, however, told the media that consumption beyond 20 kilolitre a month would attract tariff for the whole usage.
The Chief Minister's office later disclosed that there will be a 10 per cent increase in tariff for those consuming more than 20 kilo litres who will be required to pay the full bill amount.
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Officials said the increase is for various customers including the household connections, industrial and bulk consumers.
The much-vaunted scheme, which tops the 18-point agenda of implementation for AAP, will come into effect from January one and will immediately benefit around nine lakh households in the city. It covers those with metered connections.
"All domestic consumers having metered connection will get 20 kilolitres of water free of cost from January 1. No charges such as sewerage charge and water cess will be levied on beneficiary of the free water scheme," newly-appointed Delhi Jal Board CEO Vijay Kumar said.
He said consumption beyond 20 kilo-litres will be charged fully. In a tweet, the Chief Minister said today's decision will cost DJB Rs 160 crore a year and Rs 40 crore for the rest of the current fiscal.
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.
In another tweet, Kejriwal said "It is duty of any responsible govt to provide 'lifeline water' to its citizens. We may debate the quantum but can we argue against the principle?"
The Chief Minister, who was unwell and skipped office, chaired the meeting of DJB at his residence in Kausambi. In its manifesto, Aam Aadmi Party had promised to supply 700 litres of water free of cost daily to each household.
20 kilo litres of water will mean average of 667 litres of free water daily. Currently, DJB has around 18 lakh domestic consumers out of which nine lakh have metered connection.
The water agency has decided to launch an awareness drive to encourage remaining nine 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.
Talking to reporters soon after the announcement, AAP leader Kumar Vishwas said: "All we needed was self confidence and patience. We were able to achieve our first promise, even as CM Arvind is sick. Trust the government, there will soon be a resolute answer on the free electricity front."
Reacting to the announcement, Sandeep Dikshit of Congress said, "Subsidies are already there. The question is if public will get what they were promised."
"They have not done much. They just shifted numbers and taking credit. Let us see what they do moving ahead," he added.
Slamming the AAP, BJP leader Vijendra Gupta said: "11 lakh households don't get water at all, what about those families? Will they give those families compensation equalling free 20KL water?"
Earlier on Monday, demands came flowing in like an avalanche thick and fast at Kejriwal's doorstep. People came with all sorts of demands – from employees of cat ambulance to sweepers to DTC temporary staff, all seeking regularising their jobs.
Holding placards, various organisations held meeting outside Kejriwal’s residence demanding an assurance, not realising that the Delhi Chief Minister was unwell. The police had a tough time as the placard holders held up traffic on a busy Monday.
AAP leader Kumar Vishwas said Kejriwal was running fever and had a terrible bowel and may need drip as he had lost a lot of fluids. He said Kejriwal is under observation as his health condition is not good and he has lost weight.
Editorial: In AAP lies lesson for all parties
In AAP lies lesson for all parties
It is instructive that the big news — from a democratic perspective — was not the emphatic defeat of the Congress at the hands of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, but the undisputed emergence in Delhi of an unheralded entity which challenges the way politics is done in this country.
The rise of the Aam Aadmi Party sits right up there in a world of turmoil, turbulence and surprises this year. It is not just a local or even a national phenomenon for India.
Its global dimension is unmistakable when variants of the theme of democracy are considered. In Pakistan next door several quarters have indicated that the AAP win resonates with them. The question is not one of the broader policies that the AAP will pursue.
The likelihood is that the AAP — not made of a timbre that will oblige it to change to radical policies and perspective insofar as industry, agriculture, trade, finance, and international relations are concerned — won’t go beyond the broad spectrum of national policies being pursued for some years which seeks to constrain capitalism to democratic confines.
The new party — which is not a party of a new type — cannot overlook the fact that for all the shortcomings of the UPA, its 10-year regime has produced a national rate of growth which is the second fastest amongst the large economies of the world for that period.
Therefore, the real effect of AAP is to create the hope that even in a large, complex and unwieldy space such as India, it is possible to move beyond the dynamics of palace politics, patronage politics, and self-serving politics that enrich a few, not the many, in economic or social terms. This is a lesson not just for the Congress, as other parties would have us believe.
The lesson is also for the BJP — a trans-regional formation — and indeed essentially state-level parties such as SP, Akali, RJD, JD(U), TMC, NCP, DMK, and the AIADMK as well. For that matter, for the parties of the Left too, which in some aspects had begun to mimic the others while being different from them in crucial ways.
In light of this it was surprising to see the BJP transport vast numbers of people from different parts of Jharkhand to swell crowds at its PM candidate Narendra Modi’s rally in Ranchi on Sunday (when a day prior, in Delhi, tens of thousands turned up at Arvind Kejriwal’s swearing-in unprompted).
Modi himself stuck to his trademark rule of departing from known facts. While blaming Jharkhand’s ills on the Congress, he forgot the state had been mostly ruled by his own party since its formation. If all parties don’t get AAP’s message, they all stand to lose their credibility.
