AAP government may soon slap Rs 100 crore water bill on Delhi Police
An RTI filed by an advocate reveals that several police stations have not paid their water bills for years and their outstanding charge run in several crore.
The AAP government may soon slap Rs 100 crore water bill to the Delhi Police. Various establishments of Delhi Police have failed to pay the amount pending for a long time.
AAP water minister Kapil Mishra said, "We will send a notice and recover water dues. It's not only Delhi Police, we will be taking action against all defaulting agencies."
Mishra was responding to findings of an RTI application which reveal that the Delhi Police are among the top defaulter with outstanding water bills of more than Rs 100 crore. As per estimate, total amount various government agencies owe to Delhi Jal Board (DJB) could be about to Rs 2,000 crore, DJB source said. The move may spark a fresh row between the city government and the Delhi Police, controlled by the union Home ministry.
Delhi faces a demand-supply gap of 265 MGD (million gallons a day) of drinking water, and is perennially at war with Haryana over Yamuna water shares. The Delhi government's free water scheme costs above Rs 250 crore annually. DJB sources say this (Rs 100 crore) and similar recovery will help offset the annual financial burden. As per the government scheme water up to 20,000 litres per month to each household with a functional meter is not billed for. Those consuming even a litre more have to pay for the whole supply.
An RTI filed by an advocate reveals that several police stations have not paid their water bills for years and their outstanding charge run in several crore. Some of the bills are so old that even their late payment charges are in crore.
As per RTI Zonal revenue office in Giri Nagar attached outstanding bill of Amar colony and Sriniwas Puri police station which stands at Rs 26.26 crore which includes Rs 21.33 crore as late fee. Similarly Kalkaji police station has outstanding bill of Rs 1.74 crore out of which a major portion of Rs 1.23 crore is late fee.
Zonal revenue office of Sarita Vihar in their reply furnished outstanding bill of various Delhi police establishment under their jurisdiction which stands at Rs 8.95 lakh.
Revenue office of Vasant Kunj could not furnish the latest record but claimed that they own Rs 1.09 crore from Vasant Kunj police station and staff quarter till February 21, 2015.
However, the Delhi Police claims that they are yet to cross check the figure as the department has various building and units working under it across the city. "There are some outstanding bill but we have to check from our end if the amount is over Rs 100 crore. In past discrepancies in some water bill was found. We clear the bills that appear genuine, but there are some that we dispute," senior Delhi police officer said.