The Delhi High Court has been informed by the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) that the number of functional water meters, which was around 8.57 lakh in March 2015, has increased to 14.67 lakh in March 2018 after the introduction of the city government’s free water scheme.
“Further, the number of unmetered water connections have come down to 1.58 lakh in March 2018, from 3.29 lakh in March 2015,” the DJB said in its affidavit filed before a Bench of Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V.K. Rao.
The DJB was responding to a petition before the High Court challenging the free water scheme of the Delhi government.
₹396 crore in subsidy
The petition has contended that water, being a fast depleting resource, ought not to be given away free in such huge quantities, especially when several areas of the city do not have water pipelines and depend on tankers for supply.
It said that the city government has given about ₹396 crore subsidy in 2017-18, up from about ₹1.88 crore in 2014-15, to provide 20,000 litres of free water per month to the citizens of the national capital.
In the affidavit, filed through advocate Sumeet Pushkarna, the DJB has indicated that the increase in subsidy is due to the increase in number of consumers, which has almost doubled from 5.6 lakh in 2015 to 11.11 lakh in 2018.
The scheme has also led to increase in water conservation as consumers have reduced their consumption to avail the benefit of the scheme, the affidavit has said. It has also contended that since the scheme was applicable only to domestic consumers, there has been an increase in the number of functional water meters as well.
The petition has sought setting aside of the Delhi government’s February 25, 2015, decision to provide 20,000 litres of free water to each household in the city and the subsequent DJB order notifying it on February 27, 2015.
The plea also alleged that “the scheme was launched without conducting proper research with regard to production, recycling and supplying of water in Delhi”.
