Delhi govt to waive water arrears of consumers living in colonies categorised as E, F, G, H, who have functional meters

New Delhi: The government will waive water arrears of consumers who live in colonies categorised E, F, G and H and have functional domestic meters, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Tuesday. [caption id=“attachment_4505833” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. PTI[/caption] Delhi’s colonies are categorised from A to H. Officials said A to D category colonies are considered as middle and upper middle residential areas. ‘A’ category colony include those in Maharani Bagh, Chanakyapuri and Golf Links. Addressing a press conference here, the chief minister said 10.5 lakh people living in these colonies will be benefitted by this move. He said late payment surcharge will also be waived off of those consumers who get their functional metres installed by 30 November this year. For ‘A’ and ‘B’ category colonies, 100 percent Late Payment Surcharge (LPSC) will be waived while 25 percent of principal arrear will also be waived. People living in ‘C’ category colonies will also get 50 percent waiver on their principal arrear and 100 percent LPSC waiver, he said. In ‘D’ category colonies, people will get waiver of 100 percent LPSC and 75 percent principal arrear. “We are expecting to earn Rs 600 crore through this scheme. This is an attempt to clean our books. The arrears have accumulated not just due to non payment of bills but also due to the fault on DJB’s part including in the billing system,” Kejriwal said. Asked about “injustice” to those paying their water bills on time, the chief minister said, “We do not have to go for another such waivers in the future.” There has been a 25 percent increase in the number of new water connections since the AAP come to power. Unmetered water connections have come down to 1.5 lakh from 3 lakh in the last five years, Kejriwal said.