New Delhi :
Ahead of upcoming Delhi Assembly Elections, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced 'water arrear waiver scheme' for those having functional domestic metres in four categories of colonies in the national Capital. There are eight categories of colonies in Delhi - A to H. Water arrears of consumers residing in the category - E, F, G and H colonies in the city will be waived off by the Aam Aadmi Party government, Arvind Kejriwal said on Tuesday.
"This is an open invite to the people of Delhi to join the mainstream and install water meters. Only those consumers who have installed meters before 30 Nov will get the benefit of this scheme," the chief minister said.
Officials said A-D category colonies are considered as middle and upper middle residential areas. 'A' category colony include those in Maharani Bagh, Chanakyapuri and Golf Links.
Kejriwal said that the scheme is aimed at cleaning up Delhi Jal Board's books in which some arrears are due to the fault of consumers but some are because of incorrect billing.
"For different levels of housing, there is a waiver of 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%. Consumers will get the waiver only when they pay the rest of the bills in up to 3 instalments. DJB expects to recover ₹600 crores revenue through this scheme," Arvind Kejriwal added.
For 'A' and 'B' category colonies, 100 per cent Late Payment Surcharge (LPSC) will be waived while 25 per cent of principal arrear will also be waived. People living in 'C' category colonies will also get 50 per cent waiver on their principal arrear and 100 per cent LPSC waiver, he said.
In 'D' category colonies, people will get waiver of 100 per cent LPSC and 75 per cent principal arrear.
Kejriwal also emphasised that there has been a 25 per cent increase in the number of new water connections since the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government come to power.
"The number of metered connections have increased by 25% since 2014-15 from 19 lakh to 23 lakh. This has brought people into the system and increased revenues for DJB. Before 2015, Delhi used to have expensive water supply, but DJB's revenues were constantly declining. In 2014-15 the revenue was just Rs 1219 crores. Today the revenues stand at Rs 1819 crores," said the CM.
Addressing a press conference, the chief minister said 10.5 lakh people living in these colonies will be benefitted by this move. He said the late payment surcharge will also be waived off for those consumers who get their functional metres installed by November 30 this year.
