DJB’s fudged records raising Delhi’s water bills, alleges AAP -Governance Now

DJB’s fudged records raising Delhi’s water bills, alleges AAP

Kejriwal accuses public utility of corruption of over Rs 10,000 crore

Shantanu Datta | February 16, 2013

This seems to be the season of scams for the Congress. While at the Centre the UPA government is trying to deflect culpability in the helicopter scam on the NDA government, activist-turned-politician Arvind Kejriwal has posed some tough questions to the Delhi government under Sheila Dikshit.

After Delhi’s power companies, the Aam Aadmi Party leader on Saturday alleged corruption of over Rs 10, 000 crore in the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), blaming the public agency for the high water bills the residents are getting of late.

Addressing the media in the capital, Kejriwal alleged that over the last 10 years the Jal Board has fudged records to rope in private companies in production, treatment and distribution of water, and in turn claiming higher tariff from consumers.

“The most frequent modus operandi (of DJB) is to project fictitious figures of non-revenue water, that is water supplied by the board for which it fails to collect revenue, and then award bogus projects to reduce such wastage,” Kejriwal alleged.

The AAP leader pointed out that water bills had taken an 18-fold jump over the last nine years due to foul practices of the DJB, which, he alleged, is working “closely” with foreign companies Degremont and Veolia, which operate water treatment plants in northeast Delhi’s Sonia Vihar and west Delhi’s Nangloi, respectively.

According to the 49-page report presented by Kejriwal, Degremont inflated its water production figures while it was supplied a lot less raw water from the UP government.

In January 2011, the Sonia Vihar plant received 48 million gallons per day (MGD) of raw water. However, Degremont reported a much higher water production of 137 MGD, Kejriwal said. “This is obviously not possible. This means production figures of the Sonia Vihar plant are fudged and are being fraudulently inflated,” he said.

He also alleged that the Delhi government claimed that while it sent 137 MGD water for distribution, it could realise payment only for 47 MGD — the remaining payment, he said, could not be realised owing to water leakage and theft.

Kejriwal also pointed out that since 2005, the Sheila Dikshit government has spent hundreds of crores in installing high-quality pipes and efficient water plants but the situation continues to remain grim. “Non-revenue water continues to remain at the same level of 50 percent, as it was in 2005. So what happened to all the money?” he asked.

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