BJP trying to stop 'one time settlement' scheme for water bills, says AAP

The AAP accused the BJP of being "happy" about the woes of people over its members giving a miss to an all-party meeting on the proposed 'one time settlement' scheme, which is aimed at correcting inflated water bills.

Interacting with reporters here, the party's national spokesperson and Delhi Urban Development Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said the BJP "boycotted" the meeting that was called by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to address this "pressing issue".

He alleged that the BJP was making a "lot of efforts through officers" to stop the scheme.

Earlier in the day, the Delhi BJP in a statement said, the party "will not attend the all-party meeting", adding it will "surely attend" the meeting if Kejriwal is ready to discuss all the alleged irregularities, including those linked with the Delhi Jal Board.

 

During the all-party meeting, Kejriwal said the BJP's absence from the meeting "indicates their opposition to the 'one time settlement' scheme, which aims to provide relief to lakhs of people in Delhi.

"We should expose the BJP in front of the people of Delhi because they are engaging in very dirty politics. If BJP has any suggestions, we will consider them," the chief minister was quoted as saying in the statement.

Kejriwal said "our assessment is that with the implementation of the 'one time settlement' scheme, water bills of nearly 90 per cent of the people will be waived. However, the Delhi government will have to provide subsidy money to the Delhi Jal Board. After this, revenue will come to the Delhi Jal Board".

"Since the issues related to services are under the central government, there is pressure on officers. Some officers have come to us and said they were being 'threatened', and their jobs will be lost. So now we have to take this issue to the people and mobilise them. This is a very big issue," he alleged.

Despite speaking to the Delhi Lt Governor and bringing a resolution in the Assembly for the scheme, it has not been able to be placed in the Delhi Cabinet, he told reporters after the meeting.

The Delhi government wants to bring this scheme for the people, but the "BJP is making a lot of efforts through officers to stop this scheme," Bharadwaj claimed.

A few days ago, it was decided that a meeting of prominent parties of Delhi will be held in interest of Delhi and its masses, to discuss the matter across party lines, the AAP leader said.

So on Thursday, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri was invited to come, accompanied by a fellow MLA, he said.

Delhi Congress president president Arvinder Singh Lovely along with fellow Congress leader Haroon Yusuf attended the meeting.

Bharadwaj said it was unfortunate that Bidhuri, Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly, and another BJP MLA did not attend the meeting.

It shows that they don't want to resolve even basic issues of people of Delhi and are "happy" with the woes of Delhi's residents, the AAP leader alleged.

Chief Minister Kejriwal had on Monday, while replying to a calling attention motion in Delhi Assembly, urged Lt Governor V K Saxena to direct officers to implement the scheme and take action against them if they refuse.

The Delhi Assembly also passed a resolution with a voice vote presented by AAP MLA Rajendra Pal Gautam on the calling attention motion on the issue.

"The House believes that the opposition party BJP, which exercises direct control over the officers for narrow, short-term and illegitimate political gains, is threatening the officers to prevent the popular government of Delhi from implementing such a hugely necessary and pro-public scheme," read the resolution.

It said the DJB has approved the scheme that would recast water bills based on an average minimum of 2 'OK' water metre readings.

This scheme would bring relief to the people of Delhi and unlock revenue for the Board, it added.

Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) chief Lovely also addresses the media after the meeting.

"I believe that in the matter of providing relief to the people of Delhi, no political party should show any weakness or reluctance fundamentally. It is unfortunate that the Bharatiya Janata Party, which always talks about Delhi and the country, avoided the all-party meeting that called for such a big issue. We could have reached some conclusions based on logical discussion in the meeting, but the BJP avoided it," he was quoted as saying in the statement.