AAP: BJP trying to stop ‘one time settlement’ scheme for water bills
The AAP accused the BJP of being “happy” about the woes of people over its members giving a miss to a multi-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 Saurabh Bharadwaj alleged that the BJP was making a “lot of efforts through officers” to stop the scheme.
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 said.
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 today, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri was invited to come, accompanied by a fellow MLA, he said. DPCC president
Arvinder Singh Lovely along with fellow Congress leader Haroun 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.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind 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 that 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.