DELHI

CPI(M) Agitates Against Water  Hike

THE CPI(M) Delhi state committee has launched an agitation against the recent increase in water tariffs, proposed privatisation of Delhi Jal Board and the inequities arising out of the privatisation of electricity distribution in Delhi. Hundreds of CPI(M) activists held a dharna at the ITO crossing on December 21, and earlier simultaneously at six places in Delhi on December 16.

The dharna at ITO was addressed by CPI(M) state secretary, Pushpinder Grewal, state secretariat members Surajbhan Bhardwaj and Mohan Lal, AIDWA state secretary Asha Lata, DYFI joint secretary  Alam Sher Siddiqui and Party state committee members Rampal, I S Biltoria, Sudhir Kumar, Sonia Verma and Jagdish Manocha.

The speakers at the dharna The CPI(M) leaders condemned the massive increase in rates of water as heaping of additional burden, especially on the poor and the working class. Till now those who consumed upto 20 kilolitres of water were paying Rs 30. It has now been increased almost four-fold to Rs 117! This massive increase is the first step towards privatisation and is aimed at making takeover by private companies lucrative, warned the speakers at the dharnas.

There is a big shortfall between supply and demand of water for most parts of the city.  This is the result of unequal distribution, 40 per cent transmission losses, pilferage by industry and individual consumers, unchecked private tube wells in rich colonies etc. Instead of addressing these issues the Delhi government is penalising the people, they charged.

Delhi is also plagued with high cost power, frequent power cuts, inefficiency of operations, innumerable billing problems etc. The Transmission and Distribution (T&D) losses are around 45 per cent.  The Rs 3,500 crore subsidies provided by the Delhi government in the last two years to the private distribution companies are far higher than earlier DVB losses. The favours shown to private parties – BSES and Tata Power – have adversely impacted on tariffs and outflows from the state exchequer. The jhuggi-jhopdi colonies (slum clusters) have been left to the mercies of private contractors who charge whatever they please. Privatisation of power distribution has obviously failed, asserted the CPI(M).

The CPI(M) leaders demanded immediate reversal of hike in water rates, stopping all plans for privatising the Delhi Jal Board, reversal of privatisation of DVB and roll back of power tariffs to reasonable levels, especially for low end consumers.

The dharnas – held at Faiz Road (Karol Bagh), Bhanjanpura, Dabri, Azadpur, Meethapur (Badarpur) and Kapashera on December 16 – were addressed by S B Bharadwaj and Baldev Singh, Party secretariat members and Rampal, I S Biltoria, Sudhir Kumar, Asha Sharma, Jagdish Manocha, Nathu Prasad, Rehana Sayeed, Sonia Verma, Prasenjit Bose and Anurag Saxena (Party state committee members). (INN)