The Hindu : Delhi to set up regulatory panel on water

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 01, 2003

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Delhi to set up regulatory panel on water

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI MARCH 31. While ruling out any hike in water charges, the Delhi Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, today announced that a Regulatory Commission on the lines of the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) would be set up for deciding matters relating to water. However, she ruled out privatisation of the Delhi Jal Board and said restructuring had been carried out to ensure efficiency and professionalism.

Addressing a press conference here, Ms. Dikshit, who is also the Chairperson of the Delhi Jal Board, informed that the Board, in its meeting today, considered and passed the annual budget. Ms. Dikshit said a regulatory body was being considered for water related issues in order to ensure that the view of all sections are considered before any major decision is taken. But at the same time she ruled out privatisation of the Board and said the World Bank had suggested restructuring of the organisation and it had nothing to do with privatisation.

Stating that there had been no response from the Central Government as well as the Haryana Government for convening an inter-State meet to sort out the issue of supply of raw water to Delhi, the Chief Minister said Haryana still was not supplying the full quota of 40 MGD of raw water to Delhi and the water supply stood at around 25 MGD. However, the quality of water coming from Haryana had improved over the past 15 days and the pollution content had come down drastically. Similarly, Ms. Dikshit informed that work on the construction of a parallel channel from Munakpur to Haiderpur had started and around Rs. 70 to Rs. 80 crores was likely to be spent during the current year.

Expressing concern over the continued rise in per capita consumption of water in New Delhi and Delhi Cantonment area, the Chief Minister said certain measures for conservation of water would be taken up in these areas. The per capita consumption here was around 400 litres against the 62 litres in other parts of the Capital.

In addition to the stationing of water tankers at various vintage points in the villages and urban areas, the Chief Minister said that a fleet of around 1,050 tankers was ready to meet the summer season demand. These tankers would operate 24 hours with a jumping crew in order to cater to the needs of the people at any given point of time. In addition to this, a number of control rooms were being set up to get feedback from the consumers and attend to their complaints.

Speaking on the occasion, the Delhi Jal Board CEO, P.K. Tripathi, said the Board would continue to focus its attention on micro and macro issues. Long-term investments are being made to set up water and sewage treatment plants, improving infrastructure by laying and replacing the pipelines. He also emphasised the need to improve work ethics, efficiency of the organisation through computerisation and imparting specialised training to the staff. The Plan allocation for 2003-04 has been proposed at Rs. 650 crores.

Mr. Tripathi also highlighted the various steps taken by DJB for augmentation of water supply,by boring 27 additional tube wells and 99 tube wells having been re-bored. Construction of 24 underground reservoirs and booster pumping stations were undertaken and commissioned during the year. He said adequate water supply was being maintained in unauthorised and regularised colonies as well as rural areas, urban villages and in Harijan bastis through proper management and adequate control.

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