Amid political wrangling on water, Delhiites get last laugh

As the Delhi Assembly Elections are due in upcoming February, the political wrangling has intensified between the ruling and opposition political parties on a range of socio-political issues. However, the citizens of Delhi have emerged as the real beneficiaries in the first round of political battle on drinking water.

In a major decision to reach out the residents of unauthorized colonies in Delhi, the city's water agency – Delhi Jal Board (@DelhiJalBoard) – exempted the levy of Infrastructure Charges (IFC) for availing water connections. This came as a huge relief for low profile citizens in the national capital city as they will now get a water connection in only Rs 2310 instead of paying about Rs 10,000.

Board Exempted the levy of Infrastructure Charges (IFC) for sanction of Water and Sewer connections in Residential/Domestic Category i.e. Category-I

— Delhi Jal Board (@DelhiJalBoard) November 22, 2019

Though subsidized water and power had been main political issues during previous Delhi Assembly Election in 2015, this relief to the people is a byproduct of about a week long political slugfest between ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and rival Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The political fight was so intense that besides union ministers, the floors in both the houses of Parliament were used to settle the scores on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH).

Announcing the decision on Friday, Delhi Jal board argued that the previous policy of Rs 100 per square meter was not effective in bringing the lower class in the water supply network of the DJB. "It has been observed that for a plot of 100 square meter, a consumer needs to pay Rs 10,000 for water and Rs 10,000 for sewer development charges. Resident of unauthorized colonies largely belong to the lower strata of the society, who find it difficult to pay the development charges,". This is the second revision of development charges by AAP government. In June 2015, the city government had revised the development charges to Rs 100 per square meter for plots up to 200 square meters.

The recent political battle on water started on November 16 when Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Mr. Ram Vilas Paswan revealed a report of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) which had taken water samples from 21 states of which maximum of samples were failed. According to this report, the tap water quality in Delhi was the worst while that in Mumbai was the best. "All the 11 water samples in Delhi failed in the test," informed Paswan. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, ministers in Delhi Government and AAP's Parliamentarians (MPs) challenged the decision and dared Mr. Paswan to disclose the identity of the 11 places from where samples were picked up. In pursuance to this demand, Paswan publically shared the details of the 11 places along with the contacts. Two of these 11 places were found to be associated with the minister. The also followed protests and counter protests on the streets of Delhi from both the sides.

Delhi Jal Board clarified that it lifts 500 samples per day from various areas of the city for random testing of tap water. "Between 01 January, 2019 to 24 September, 2019, DJP collected 1,55,302 samples out of which 2,222 were failed which is only 1.43 percent," said DJB. The agencies of the Central Government and Delhi Government are now working to constitute joint teams for water testing in the city.