Waiver scheme only as Kejriwal is afraid of losing polls, says Opposition

The Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party leaders said this is a “desperate effort” by the Kejriwal government to cover up its failures. The opposition parties said the government is giving away freebies to woo voters before elections.

The opposition parties Monday said chief minister Arvind Kejriwal is apprehensive of his party’s defeat in the forthcoming assembly elections and that was why the government was busy announcing populist schemes one after the other, including Tuesday’s announcement of a waiver on water bill arrears.

Member of Parliament Manoj Tiwari talks to flood-affected victims, near Kashmere Gate ISBT, in New Delhi. (Raj K Raj/HT FILE PHOTO)

A section of the residents’ welfare associations, however, termed the waiver scheme “a temporary relief” since, according to them, faulty water meters would continue to generate hefty erroneous bills, which residents won’t be able to pay, resulting in arrears again.

“With the announcement of the waiver scheme, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has indirectly accepted that the water bills were faulty. RWAs have been claiming that the flow meters installed by the DJB are faulty and were generating erroneous bills, the amounts, in some cases, exceeding those of electricity bills. If the faulty meters are not replaced, such arrears would start mounting again as citizens won’t pay erroneous bills,” Saurabh Gandhi, general secretary, United Residents of Delhi, an umbrella body of RWAs, said.

The Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party leaders said this is a “desperate effort” by the Kejriwal government to cover up its failures. “He should also refund crores of rupees recovered as penalty on water bills from people; otherwise, it will be an arrears scam,” BJP’s Vijender Gupta, leader of the opposition in the Delhi assembly, said.

The opposition parties said the government is giving away freebies to woo voters before elections. Questioning the timing of the announcements, Haroon Yusuf, Delhi Congress working president, said, “The government is on a spree to buy votes by announcing freebies. This is nothing but trying to bribe residents of Delhi. If he was so serious about providing relief to people, then the government should have taken this decision two or three years ago.”

With elections scheduled in Delhi next year, Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari said instead of resolving the water problems people are facing, the government is focusing on giving sops. ”First, the DJB served hefty bills to harass the people and when people refused to pay, the government is talking about a waiver on late fee charges on the arrears. This is because elections are going to be held within a few months. He (Kejriwal) is trying to mislead the people by making announcements one after another to show that he is in action mode,” Tiwari said.

The waiver scheme has also evoked a mixed response from residents. While some RWAs were apprehensive about faulty meters generating hefty bills in future as well, others welcomed the move.

Ashutosh Dikshit, head of the URJA, an apex body of RWAs, said, “If with the waiver scheme the government is able to meet the goals that it has set — such as bringing more citizens under the billing net, increasing revenue and conserve water — then we welcome the step.”