NEW DELHI: The AAP on Thursday alleged that the urban development secretary refused to present the proposal of a one-time settlement scheme for redressing faulty water bills before the council of ministers.
This comes as Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal accompanied by Bharadwaj and Finance Minister Atishi met Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena to address their concerns in this regard.
The AAP government plans to bring a one-time settlement scheme for redressing faulty water bills, which will help in unlocking Rs 1,400 crore revenue for the DJB.
Addressing a press conference here, Bharadwaj alleged that the proposal was passed in the DJB’s board meeting and that written directions were given to the department secretary to present it before the council of ministers.
“The proposal was passed in our board meeting and we prepared to take it to the cabinet. Since Jal Board’s administrative department is urban development, we gave written directions to the department secretary and asked him to present it to the council of ministers. Surprisingly, he refused to present it,” he alleged.
“After his refusal, we mentioned that the scheme also got clearance from Finance Minister Atishi, but we were told by the secretary that they do not recognize Finance as a department,” he added.
Speaking about why the government has been planning to bring the scheme, Bharadwaj said that more than 10.5 lakh consumers have been receiving exaggerated water bills for the last few years.
“Most of the consumers believe that the bills they received from DJB were way beyond the amount of water they consumed. This problem increased especially during COVID times. There were instances when people were not there at their residences for months and yet they received hefty bills from the Jal board,” Bharadwaj said. “Hence, the DJB brought this one-time settlement scheme as a solution,” he added.
Atishi on her part said that the lieutenant governor agreed to direct the secretary to present the proposal before the council of ministers in a week. “We raised this matter with the lieutenant governor today. The LG said that the proposal must be presented before the council of ministers and we expect it to be presented early next week,” she said.