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Delhi: CPI(M) Flays Move For Water Tariff Hike

THE CPI(M)’s Delhi state committee has strongly condemned the proposal of the recently re-elected Sheila Dikshit government to effect a steep increase in water tariffs. Terming it as just the beginning of a drive of imposing additional burdens on the people of Delhi, the CPI(M) said the increase in water tariffs would be followed by increases in electricity tariffs, bus/metro fares, and so on. This is the reward the people of Delhi are receiving for re-electing a Congress government in Delhi.

In a statement issued on December 31, the CPI(M) state committee said the finances of Delhi Jal Board (DJB) could be improved by preventing the large scale theft of water by big commercial, industrial and private consumers. DJB data show that 44 per cent of the consumers paying for water supply through meters are mainly small consumers. Supply to most of the big consumers remains unmeasured and therefore they get away with paying minimum charges alone. This fraud is primarily responsible for revenue losses to the DJB, to the tune of crores of rupees per month. Instead of ending this loot, however, the Congress government is subsidising the robbery by the rich by further burdening the poor.

The CPI(M) statement further pointed out that over 40 per cent of the treated water is lost through leakage simply because the government hands out the job of repair or replacement of pipelines to private contractors who use sub-standard materials, make huge profits and ensure the continuance of losses through leakage. The government’s plea that it has no option but to hike water tariffs is therefore entirely spurious.

The CPI(M) is of the opinion that the proposed hike in water tariffs and the rationale advanced for it are, in reality, aimed at creating grounds for privatising the DJB and water supply. Steep hike in water tariffs is a necessary pre-condition to make the DJB an attractive proposition for takeover by any private party.

Decrying this anti-people conspiracy, the CPI(M) said it stands in total opposition to the DJB’s privatisation and the proposed hike in tariffs. It warned the state government to immediately desist from the move, failing which the people of Delhi would give a fitting reply to the Congress and its government both in the streets and in the forthcoming election to the Lok Sabha. (INN)