DELHI

 Stop Privatisation Of Water Supply: CPI(M)

THE Communist Party of India (Marxist), Delhi state committee has demanded the Shiela Dixit government to immediately withdraw its the decision to privatise water supply in two zones of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) under the so-called “24X7 scheme”.

In a statement issued on September 24, the Party charged that this is just a preliminary step towards privatising the Delhi Jal Board. “Sheila Dikshit has betrayed her repeated promises to the people of Delhi that the DJB would not be privatised. She had given a similar assurance to a delegation of the CPI(M) which met her on July 22, 2004,” stated the Party.

It felt that privatisation will be accompanied by an over 20-times increase in water tariffs. Better supply in two zones will been ensured by diverting supplies from other zones and the rapacious exploitation of ground water by the private companies. As the two zones identified for the scheme – South 2 (Lajpat Nagar) and South 3 (Greater Kailash) comprise mainly of posh colonies, residents there will not have any problem in paying the enhanced rates. This model will then be upheld as both workable and affordable and extended to other areas with disastrous implications for the poor, feared the Party.

The statement pointed out that the argument that privatisation means better availability, reduction in theft and reasonable prices has been proved wrong by the experience of power privatisation in Delhi. The only gainers in this case have been the private companies.

ALTERNATIVE

The CPI(M) stated that better water supply can be ensured by rectifying unequal availability between different zones and cutting down transmission losses that are currently to the tune of 40 per cent. These losses are largely because of theft by industry and use of sub-standard materials by private contractors handling repairs. Instead of doing this, the Congress state government has opted for the above anti-poor step.

The CPI(M) demanded withdrawal of this anti-poor move and warned the state government that the people will not tolerate its drive to privatise all civic amenities. (INN)