NEW DELHI: The Congress on Thursday announced that it would introduce a “cashback scheme” to encourage water conservation if voted back to power. PCC chief Subhash Chopra said every household, which saves water from present quota of free 20,000-litre water every month, will be rewarded.
“Under the ‘Paani Bachao-Dilli Bachao’ (Save water, Save Delhi) scheme, 0.30 paise cashback will be given for every litre of water saved. Currently, the free water scheme does not specify on the size of a family it is applicable on. Because of that, it is being misused by those with lesser number of family members or locked houses,” said Chopra.
In January 2014, the Delhi government had announced 20,000 litres of free water per month to every household.
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Chopra also accused the AAP government of introducing the free water scheme as vote-bank politics. Though the Congress would retain the scheme, it will keep in mind the likelihood of a future ‘water war’, he said. “30 paise for every litre of water saved will be directly transferred into the consumers’ account,” he told the media at a press briefing.
Expressing concern over depleting groundwater level in the national capital, the Congress leader said that 70 per cent groundwater has exhausted in the past six years, “As many as 25 per cent water goes waste...people are getting dirty water for which the Delhi government is fully responsible. To purify one-litre water through RO, three-litre water goes waste. The CGWB had suggested that there was an urgent need to bring a scheme to save water,” he said.