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77% of illegal, regularised colonies served: DJB tells high court
The Delhi Jal Board also told the court that work on providing piped water supply is at different stages in 100 colonies and that water tankers serve the 289 colonies where work is pending.
The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) on Tuesday told the Delhi high court that it has provided potable water to around 77% of the 1,726 unauthorised or regularised colonies in the national capital. However, the Board said, work is pending in 289 such colonies due to technical issues or not having a no-objection certificate.
The Board also told the court that work on providing piped water supply is at different stages in 100 colonies and that water tankers serve the 289 colonies where work is pending.
The bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V Kameswar Raowas was told efforts are being made to provide piped supply to all the residents of Delhi and areas where water supply works are in progress or is to be taken up, such areas are being provided drinking water supply through tankers. In an affidavit, the DJB also said that many water deficit areas are served by around 972 tankers.
The information was given to the court while hearing a plea filed by two advocates Tajinder Singh and Anurag Chauhan, who had challenged the free water scheme of the Delhi government. They claimed the policy is using up public funds in vain. The plea also claimed that the scheme was introduced without any research and asked that the scheme, brought in after the AAP came to power in 2015, be scrapped.
On Tuesday, the DJB told the bench that since the introduction of the scheme, the numbers of functional meters have increased to 14.67 lakh (till March 2018) from 8.57 lakh in the year 2015. It also said that the number of unmetered connections have come down to 1.58 lakh (March 2018) from 3.29 lakh (March 2015).
The affidavit detailed there was no revenue loss because of the scheme, which aimed at providing 20 litres water to Delhiites free of charge.
The court asked the Delhi government to file the reply to the plea, which alleged that the water which is being supplied through water tankers is not fulfilling the actual need of people in those colonies.
The matter would be now heard on July 30.
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