50% relief for middle-income areas, 25% for upscale ones
In a major relief to water consumers, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday announced a complete waiver of water arrears for people living in colonies categorised as ‘E, F, G and H’.
Kejriwal said households would be entitled to waiver on the principal amount of arrears depending on the category of colonies (graded from A to H) they are located in — 25% for upscale colonies, 50% for middle-income localities and 100% for lower income localities.
Addressing the media, Kejriwal said late payment surcharge (LPSC) will also be completely waived in all the eight categories of colonies. The Government has also announced a 100 per cent waiver on LPSC for commercial consumers if they have functional water meters by November this year.
Kejriwal, chairman of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), said, “We are expecting to earn Rs 600 crore through this scheme. “This is an attempt to clean our books (of pending dues). The arrears have accumulated not just due to non- payment of bills but also due to the fault on DJB’s part, including in the billing system,” the CM said.
“There has been a 25 per cent increase in the number of new water connections since the AAP has come to power. Unmetered water connections in the city have come down to 1.5 lakh from 3 lakh in the last five years,” Kejriwal said.
The CM said the scheme that brings more households to the billing network along with the enhanced billing efficiency will improve the financial management of the DJB.
The CM said the DJB now has achieved 95 per cent of the billing efficiency from 80 per cent and expected to increase the same to 98 per cent soon. “Our Government has undertaken a major initiative - distribution of tabs for all meter readers enabling them to take photos with location identification.”
With the decision, estimated 22.6 lakh domestic water consumers having functional meters by November 30 this year will be able to avail this scheme, according to the Government.
Delhi’s colonies are categorised from A-H. Officials said A-D category colonies are considered as middle and upper middle residential areas. ‘A’ category colony includes those in Maharani Bagh, Chanakyapuri and Golf Links.
For ‘A’ and ‘B’ category colonies, 25 per cent rebate will be given on their principal arrears while in the ‘C’ category colonies, 50 per cent waiver will be provided on the same. In ‘D’ category colonies, people will get a waiver of 75 per cent on their principal pending arrear. Kejriwal said that arrears of water consumers have been pending for two to five years.
There are 1,769,981 water consumers in E to H category colonies, while there are around 3.44 lakh consumers in the D category colonies. The Government said in A to B category colonies, 70,082 consumers will be able to avail the scheme benefits while in C category colonies, there are 76,125 consumers.
S.No. Category No of Consumers LPSC Rebate % Principal Rebate %
1 A and B 70082 100 % 25 %
2 C 76425 100 % 50 %
3 D 344271 100 % 75 %
4 E,F,G & H 1769981 100 % 100 %