Courting industry,Sheila promises power,water

“We are meeting demands of 5,600 MW per day and will generate more,but we cannot have a (generating) station that is not environment-friendly. Two power plants were ready,but inadequate gas supply is bogging us down. We have been promised that gas supply will normalise in the next three or four years,” she said.

More than 75 industry leaders,including Wipro chairman Azim Premji,chairman of Godrej group Adi Godrej,ICICI Bank chairman K V Kamath and Fortis Healthcare Executive Chairman Malvinder Mohan Singh,attended the CII function.

Dikshit admitted that the city’s water distribution network “is in a bad shape”,but her government was determined to modernise it by involving private entities. “We have enough water. Water availability is not very bad. But the problem is that we have a very bad distribution system,” she said.

The CII,which has entered into an agreement with the city government to help it address major challenges,has been asking for reforms in the water sector.

Dikshit,pitching for private players,said people must be made to “pay for every drop” of water they use so that they know the value of the resource.

The current average demand of potable water is around 1,100 million gallons per day (MGD) and around 850 MGD of water is available with the Delhi Jal Board. But 30 per cent of the water is lost through leaks and other unaccountable means.

Unsafe Delhi

Sheila Dikshit pitched for modernising the Delhi Police and creating awareness among residents to address the growing feeling of insecurity among women in the Capital. Dikshit said contrary to claims by police about improvement in law and order,the majority of women in the city do not feel secure and there was need to seriously address their concerns. “Statistics do not match the kind of fear that we have. There is this feeling that Delhi is not a safe city,” she said,replying to a question by actor Shabana Azmi at the CII interaction.

migration woes

Identifying migration as a major challenge facing Delhi,Sheila Dikshit asked the other states to develop infrastructure in their cities so people don’t come to the Capital in search of jobs. She also appealed to the Centre to build more cities across the country to ease the pressure on Delhi. “More than half a million people come to Delhi every year primarily for jobs. The increasing number of people is putting pressure on our infrastructure. The infrastructure in Delhi is not bad. But it needs to be upgraded constantly to meet the demand. If the states provide them opportunities and livelihood,build better cities,then I do not think the migration will continue,” she said.