In the two years since the Aam Aadmi Party came to power, the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) has become more efficient and seen the influence of politics reduce, said Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Monday.
Speaking at the release of the DJB’s two-year report card, Mr. Sisodia said that the water utility was no longer embroiled in politics. Instead, he said, it was focused on expanding its piped network. “The DJB was being used politically. Both parties [Congress and BJP] were operating tankers and depriving people of piped water supply to benefit the mafia. Even in colonies where pipelines had been laid, these groups were not allowing the DJB to supply water,” said Mr. Sisodia.
Tanker mafia targeted
According to Mr. Sisodia, the DJB had cracked down on the tanker mafia and added 250 of its own tankers to supply water to unconnected areas.
“There may be financial constraints or limits of the engineering staff, but political issues are no longer hindering work,” he said.
DJB chairperson Kapil Mishra added that the water utility had fulfilled the AAP’s election promise of free water to all. “When we were about to give 20,000 litres of water free of charge, other parties accused us of giving freebies and not knowing how to run a government. Two years on, the DJB has increased revenue by ₹178 crore,” he said.
In the past two years, the DJB has added 308 unauthorised colonies to its network. Under the erstwhile Congress government, the DJB had added only 18 colonies in five years, said Mr. Mishra.
Reiterating the DJB’s promise of improving quality of water to bring it up to drinking standards by December, he said that a pilot project to this effect would be launched in Malviya Nagar this month.
