Men, Matters & Memories
M L Kotru
Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Admi Party appears to have taken to power like a duck to water; never mind the tokenism, like a party MLA turning up at the assembly in a self driven electric three-wheeler or some others hitching rides to take their oath as newly elected legislators. All 28 of them were there, looked on by survivors of the BJP and Congress who had made it to the assembly with the odds heavily set against them.
Their white Gandhi caps with the familiar AAP legend written on the sides may have looked odd but who cares at a time when seasoned MPs rush into the well of the house flaunting placards, shouting slogans. Yokel-like they may have looked but these on the face of it were earnest men and the odd woman who sat on the ministerial benches.
The uppity BJP and Congress MLAs did try to score on the novices by asking them not to clap but thump their desktops when oaths were administered to the newly elected members. For a moment the older lot looked like it was trying to enforce some club-like discipline but better sense seemed to prevail, reminded perhaps, as the veterans must have been, of the horrors they themselves have perpetrated in the these very chambers.
I am writing as Kejriwal’s ministry is seeking the vote of confidence which the Lt. Governor had asked it to obtain within a week. There was no last minute change of heart (which would have been a disaster for the grand old party) on the part of the 8- member Congress legislative party, which had pledged it support to the AAP. Everything looked honky dory as the vote was done. So far, forgetting the dramatics, the going appears to have been rather smooth but fraught with consequences. Predictably, the AAP did not waste a minute in declaring its intent to redeem the pledges it had made during the poll campaign. Kejriwal down with a severe attack of diahorrea and high temperature had converted his Ghaziabad home into his office, monkey cap and all, to deliver on one of his biggest promises : 667 liters of water a day for nothing, “the life-line water” of AAP’s description.
Delhi Jal Board top brass was summoned to his home to make “a common claim to essential resources” a reality. In its hurry to come good on the promises it has made the AAP seems to have overlooked that despite the easy appeal of the policy (50% rebate on power consumption) it may fiscally be unwise, short-sighted, and ignoring the poor who lack access to metered water through pipes-nearly half of Delhi, given there are only 17 lakh meter connection in Delhi.
In the event the announcement will lavish free water upon those who can afford to pay and should pay given that there are costs involved in constructing reservoirs, maintaining pipe-lines, providing infrastructure and human resources; one shudders to think of the water tanker mafia, highly politicized and waiting in the wings, as it were, to come into the reckoning yet again.
With almost half the population yet to be assured of its need of water, the AAP risks being caught out. The water tanker mafia is a highly organized phenomenon and most unreliable, too. I have known of thousands of instances where water contracted to be delivered to waterless populations was diverted by the unscrupulous pliers of the trade to building sites, sold at a premium. There is no limit to human greed.
A small digression to the mid 90s seems to be in order. In the early 90s I was visiting the Kashmiri Pandit refugee camps outside Jammu city when a couple of water tankers appeared, come deliver to the camp inmates there needful of water. Only half of the residents of the camp had barely received their fill of water before the tankers, followed by another, moved on, the bulk of the water in their bellies. I and my cameraman followed the tankers and sure enough saw the water being unloaded at building sites. Have seen the same phenomenon repeated many times over at numerous construction sites in Delhi and the National Capital Region-over the years.
The AAP, intent on keeping its promises, has misunderstood the very nature of Delhi’s at water crises. It may create temporary good will among the middle classes and impresses the future voters but it will also create large costs for the Delhi Jal Board to manage down the line and actively encourage profligate use of water.
In affect the tab will now be picked up by the State and could involve cutting back public spending or imposing taxes on the average citizen. In the new water policy any drop that exceeds the free amount in the next slab of the 20 to 30 kilometers would entail a higher bill of Rs. 870. Given that water meter readings are not difficult to manage, this is a steep tariff climb, an invitation to distortion and waste. An effort must be made instead to manage demand and to expand the water grid to those who are not currently served.
Delhi is perennially short of water; it’s parched. It is dependent for its water on neighboring Harayana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. What makes it worse is the systematic mismanagement of the resourse-roughly 52% of water is lost because of leaky pipelines which somehow come to abound in the Delhi Jal Boards domain. Genuine reform as experts have pointed out would involve bulk metering systems, technology-aided monitoring at every stage, investment in treating and recycling water, improving pipelines. And switching to a graded model that imposes a minimal cost on everyone and climbs higher, depending on usage.
It would mean to bring water to the many lakhs of households which are now left out and dependent on an extractive tanker mafia, and making supply more reliable.
Having “fulfilled” his promises to supply “free” water AAP Chief Minister has followed it up by slashing the cost of electricity supply. Simultaneously he has asked the Comptroller and Auditor General of India to have the accounts of the distribution companies audited, obviously to assess profitability of the three companies engaged in distribution. He announced a 50% subsidy on power consumption upto 400 units a month involving some 28 Lakh households in addition to weaker sections of the society. Here again if the idea is to help the genuinely poor, the first priority should have been to provide for the infrastructure. I don’t believe that it will help the needy living in poorer colonies/shanties who must of necessity depend on stealing power directly from the mains. It does, of course, offer relief to the middle class among whom the AAP I believe has its base.
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