NEW DELHI: For bringing relief to 10 lakh consumers complaining of “inflated water bills” or keeping them “outstanding”, the Delhi government on Friday said a ‘One Time Settlement’ scheme will soon be offered for clearing such bills.
“There are many reasons for the issue. It could be that the meter reader did not go for meter reading or he could not get the correct reading. It could be that one building has 12 flats and he could not gauge which meter is for which flat,” Atishi, the Delhi Jal Board minister said while addressing a press conference.
Explaining the upcoming scheme, the minister said, a new bill with a re-casted amount will be generated and sent to the consumer. “Consumers can accept the one-time settlement and pay the new bill thereby clearing all previous arrears”.
Moreover, the water bill will be waived for those consumers who have a consuming less than 20 KL (Kilo Litre) of water, she added.
Regarding the revenue of the water department, the minister said, “Now, around 40 per cent of consumers have not been paying their bills. This is also impacting revenue of the DJB. The one-time settlement scheme is expected to earn a revenue of around Rs 1,400 crore to DJB. To avail the scheme, each consumer would require a functional meter. The scheme has been passed by the Delhi Jal Board in its board meeting.”
Specifying the way the scheme will work, Atishi said,” The faulty water bills of consumers will be re-casted as per the median reading of the past years. If the problem of faulty meters or bills exceeds 5 years then the bill will be re-casted based on consumption pattern of the neighborhood of the consumer.”
Urban Development Minister Saurabh Bharadwa said he has directed that this scheme should be presented before the Cabinet for approval soon.
In the last two days, the problem of faulty water bills was raised at two events where Kejriwal was present. He had assured people that the government was working to address the issue and come up with a scheme to settle the bills.