As parts of India reel under acute water scarcity, drought and desperation, government institutions in the national capital not only guzzle water, but have also been defaulting on their dues to the Delhi Jal Board, which supplies water in the city.
Perhaps the most culpable is the Central Government Offices complex in Central Delhi. It houses a clutch of Union ministries, including, quite ironically, the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation.
The outstanding dues of the CGO complex in April stand at a whopping Rs 188.8 crore. Its thirst seems unquenchable for it consumed water to the tune of Rs 85.4 lakh in the March-April billing cycle. As dues mount, so does the late payment surcharge that is as high as Rs 9.4 crore for April.
Delayed payment
Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised Indian Railways in his speech on Panchayat Day on Sunday, applauding it for ferrying water to drought-hit Marathwada. The applause was indeed justified, except that one of its divisions – Northern Railway – owes the Delhi Jal Board, or DJB, Rs 82.6 crore. The late payment surcharge for this amounts to Rs 4.1 crore.
Northern Railway’s payment history shows it paid a princely sum of Rs 250 in the February-March billing cycle against its pending dues. Perhaps it was strapped for finances as it was the fag end of the financial year. Nevertheless, payment for use of public utilities isn’t quite the priority of government organisations, all of whom lecture citizens to pay for public services and goods they use.
A Cabinet Secretariat office located on Lodhi Road has, in comparison to the CGO complex and Northern Railway, an outstanding bill of just Rs 21.3 lakh. But given that the Cabinet Secretariat is “responsible for the administration of the Government of India”, its outstanding dues can be interpreted to be symbolic of the bureaucratic culture – of not paying for water that is consumed, or paying inordinately late.
Shouldn’t the Cabinet Secretariat clear its dues promptly to set to an example for other wings of the government?
Public undertakings are not prompt in paying their bills either. For instance, the Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited has Rs 1.1 crore as pending dues, and the Housing and Urban Development Corporation, which has its office in Andrews Ganj, owes DJB Rs 63.1 lakh.
Inexplicable delay in the execution of public works is said to be the defining feature of the Central Public Works Department. It is true of its payment to the DJB to which it owes Rs 1.3 crore. The Defence and Research Development Organisation too has been lagging behind in paying its water bill – it has dues of Rs 97.3 lakh.
The Indian Institutes of Technology are deemed to be at the vanguard of the Make in India and Start-Up India movements. But what they perhaps need to be taught is to pay their bills on time. IIT-Delhi, for instance, owes the DJB as much as Rs 12.9 crore. It is billed separately for water supplied to its 1,005 flats – and for which it has an outstanding amount of Rs 64.4 lakh. (In contrast, Sri Ram College of Commerce pays on time.)
Of quite another order among defaulters are three police stations in Delhi. The one in Kalkaji owes Rs 1.9 crore. Its last payment was way back in June 2014. One in Vasant Vihar owes Rs 1 crore to the DJB; its last payment was of Rs 86,871 in April 2015.
In contrast, the police station of Vijay Vihar, in Rohini, has an outstanding amount of Rs 3.9 lakh, but its history of payment holds out the hope that it will clear its dues soon. Yet it is surprising that police stations should be consuming so much water.
The Anil Ambani-owned power distribution company, BSES Rajdhani Power Limited, expects payments from its customers on time, failing which it imposes penalties on them. But the BRPL doesn’t itself seem in a tearing hurry to pay for the water it consumes. It owes the DJB a substantial amount of Rs 9.6 crore. The company’s payment history shows it last paid the DJB a sum of Rs 1.3 lakh in August 2015.
The DJB bills show that defaults are often not just one-time, but a consistent payment pattern on the part of several entities – those listed here, and others that are not. Dues, therefore, tend to accumulate over time, and balloon further because of the surcharge levied on the accumulated amount.
Counter-claims
Some of the entities claim to have settled their dues. For instance, the person who handles water among other things in the CGO complex spoke to this writer, but was insistent he shouldn’t be named. He claimed most of the CGO complex’s outstanding dues have been settled a while ago. “There is just about Rs 40 crore pending,” he said, as if Rs 40 crore is par for the course.
Asked why the amount paid by the CGO complex isn’t reflected in its water bill, he reasoned, “That’s because the files in the DJB move slowly.”
However, the DJB updates its records daily online – it takes three days for payments made through cheque to be reflected online. The Rs 188.8 crore due from the CGO complex, as also the amount from other entities, are real-time dues, the DJB insists.
Otherwise too, the CGO complex’s payment history shows it paid just Rs 94 lakh in February, Rs 88.3 lakh in January, and Rs 2 crore last September. It is inconceivable that it could have cleared the entire amount it owes the DJB barring the Rs 40 crore the CGO person claims remains unpaid.
The massive amount owed to the DJB turns on its head the idea underlying Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s efforts to get the middle class to voluntarily forfeit subsidised cooking gas, and pay the market price for it instead.
Water consumed by government officials but not paid for adversely impacts infrastructure improvement, extension of piped water to areas that depend on tankers for their supplies, and free water supply to families consuming 20 kilolitres a month – which, in Delhi, is defined as lifeline water, or the amount of water a family of four needs for its minimum needs.
When the Delhi government decided to supply free water to those who consumed 20 kilolitres of it, or less, a month, there was a veritable uproar. But you wonder what to call the habit of consuming water but not paying for it on time. Perhaps these entities resort to this method because the DJB can scarcely cut supplies to even those institutions that have outstanding dues running into crores of rupees. It could, after all, paralyse governance, and possibly spark off a Centre-state slugfest. So the DJB can at best send reminders, which are quite ineffectual in their impact.
(Ajaz Ashraf is a journalist in Delhi. His novel, The Hour Before Dawn, is available in bookstores.)
