NEW DELHI: The Delhi government on Tuesday launched a “one-time settlement scheme” for Delhi Jal Board (DJB) service users in an attempt to bring relief to the people from the inflated bills.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced the scheme saying the move would benefit around seven lakh consumers who have accumulated massive pending arrears on their water bills due to various reasons since the pandemic hit the city.
“Pending water bills increased in large numbers. This happened following the Covid pandemic when the water meters could not be read on a regular basis. Either the meters were not read properly or people got the wrong bills with huge pending. There are around 27.6 lakh domestic metres, of which 11.7 lakh people have huge arrears,” he said.
According to him, the arrears have accumulated to Rs 5,737 crore. Addressing a press conference at the secretariat, Kejriwal said that the government planned to implement the scheme from August 1 and the consumers would receive the corrected bills after that.
Explaining the scheme, the CM said it would be divided into two sub-heads — one will cover those who have two or more correct readings and the other will cover those who have one or no correct meter reading. “Had we gone about correcting every bill, it would have taken us more than 100 years to rectify those. Through this scheme, we will settle the bills of 11.7 lakh consumers. In fact, of these 11.7 lakh consumers, seven lahks will get zero bills following the implementation of the scheme,” he said.
Kejriwal said that the scheme, which has already been approved by the DJB, would come to the Cabinet soon. After the implementation of the scheme, the consumers will be given three months to pay the bills.
“If they fail to pay the bills within the three months, they will have to pay with arrears,” Kejriwal said, adding that steps are being taken to stop wrong meter readings.