Centre, L-G impeding water bill settlement scheme, says Bharadwaj

A meeting was held on January 17. The Water Minister wrote in a note a day later that despite several discussions, no concrete changes were made and put up before the Board. DJB, however, said in a February 23 status note that the minutes of the January 17 meeting were still pending with the minister,” said an official.

The Delhi government, in its response, said that officers were working “under the influence of the Lieutenant Governor and the BJP”, and were stalling the implementation of the one-time settlement scheme.

“The people of Delhi are watching how BJP is working against the interests of Delhi, and how officers are making up new excuses every day… The DJB, after long deliberations, had finalised the one-time settlement scheme. Earlier, it was a view that DJB officers will rework the policy, and hence, the file was sent back to DJB so that changes could be made to the policy. However, even after so much time, DJB could not arrive at any new scheme,” said the Delhi government in a statement.

It also said that the DJB chairperson had decided that the policy approved by DJB on June 13, 2023, may be considered to be placed before the Cabinet.
“Despite clear directions, the officers are not placing the policy before the Council of Ministers. The Chief Secretary has been directed multiple times to place a note before the Council of Ministers,” said the government in a statement.

According to Bharadwaj, out of around 27 lakh users, complaints of erroneous bills had been received from approximately 10.6 lakh consumers, and the scheme was announced to tackle this, adding that the file regarding the scheme was sent to the finance department a month ago, with all queries answered.

“Along with submitting the original file on February 9 to the finance department, we gave directions to submit their comments by February 12 and present it in the Cabinet by February 14. However, it was not (done),” said Bharadwaj.