Jal Board staff smell a scam in Bhagirathi plant

Following a PIL alleging a scam, the Delhi High Court has asked the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) to submit all documents related to the work contract of the Bhagirathi water treatment plant to a private firm. Nivedita Khandekar reports.

Following a PIL alleging a scam, the Delhi High Court has asked the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) to submit all documents related to the work contract of the Bhagirathi water treatment plant to a private firm.

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Various works at DJB's Bhagirathi water treatment plant in northeast Delhi were allotted to the private company Larsen & Toubro (L&T) at a cost of R271 crore. "However, if we go by the work analysis as per the CPWD manual, the cost comes to no more than R120 crore. This is a huge loss to the public exchequer," said MM Kashyap, the advocate representing the Jal Mal Sangharsh Morcha.

"The high court admitted the PIL on Wednesday. The court now wants to produce all records related to this plant," said Suresh Tripathi, advocate for the DJB.

DJB's top officials said there was nothing wrong in any process. "It is a completely transparent system. We would submit all the documents in the court," said Ramesh Negi, CEO, DJB.

Jal Mal Kamgar Sangharsh Morcha, representing the joint front of all the unions of DJB, has also claimed problems with working of L&T at Haiderpur's waste water treatment unit.

The Haiderpur water treatment plant has an average production capacity of 200 million gallons per day (MGD). Generally, 8 per cent of water - in this case 16 MGD - is lost in the process of treating the raw water.

The waste water recycling plant, being run by L&T, is supposed to re-cycle this 'water lost during treatment'.

"This 16 MGD water is being flown into Najafgarh drain and the company is instead using raw water in its plant," said Sant Ram Pradhan, Morcha's office bearer.

"So far, our chief engineer has not reported any irregularity at Haiderpur," Negi said.