Djb to waive pending water bills of 7 lakh consumers cm

Djb to waive pending water bills of 7 lakh consumers cm

Delhi government to implement a one-time settlement plan to clear water bill arrears of 11.7 lakh domestic consumers from August 1; total outstanding dues amount to ₹5,737 crore.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday announced a scheme offering a one-time settlement of water bill arrears of 11.7 lakh domestic consumers. Of these, the arrears of seven lakh consumers will be waived completely.

There are about 27.6 lakh domestic consumers registered with the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), of which 11.7 lakh consumers have outstanding dues amounting to ₹5,737 crore.

“When we analysed the water bills of these 11.7 lakh households and applied the formula of our one-time settlement scheme, we noticed that over seven lakh households are eligible for zero water bills. This is because their consumption falls in the 20 kilolitres per month limit, which is already exempted by the State government. For the remaining 4.7 lakh consumers, arrears will come down once the scheme is implemented,” the CM said.

After coming to power, the AAP government made 20 kilolitres of water per month free for all households with functional water meters from January 1, 2014.

“The water bills of some residents have been accumulating for a while. There are several reasons for this, the biggest being that the meter reading for several households couldn’t be done during the pandemic,” he said.

Mr. Kejriwal said there were also cases where meter readers filed incorrect readings.

“As a result, people received wrong bills. For some reason or other, these 11.7 lakh households have refused to pay their bills,” he said, adding that the people of Delhi had been waiting for this scheme for several months now.

The latest decision was approved by the board of the DJB and now needs to be cleared by the Delhi Cabinet, Mr. Kejriwal said.

Three months’ time

He explained that the new bills will be generated after August 1. Consumers will be given three months to settle their dues.

“If they fail to pay the new bills within this period, they will have to pay the original amounts and would not be able to avail of the facility provided by the one-time settlement scheme,” he added.