Not satisfied with the Delhi Jal Board’s explanation that private companies are being roped in to “enhance services and reduce non-revenue water”, a non-government organisation, Water Privatisation-Commercialisation Resistance Committee, has torn into the arguments and called for an open debate and discussion on the issue of initiating public private partnership programmes in the city. The DJB has decided to initiate PPP programmes in three areas of the city to streamline distribution and revenue collection. The areas are Malviya Nagar, Vasant Vihar and Nangloi. Justice Rajinder Sachar, patron of the NGO, has shot off a letter to Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, who is also the chairperson of the DJB, listing the aberrations in the finalisation and award of PPP works. Criticising the DJB for saying that the private companies will provide better services to consumers, the NGO has asked why the Jal Board cannot rely on their own employees to do the needful. The NGO has also raised questions on the terms of the PPP and said that there are no details of the project contract agreements with the private companies on the Jal Board’s website and important details related to the award of work are not in the public domain. “The DJB water bills have recently begun to show a figure of Rs.28/kl as cost of water treatment and supply to consumers. Till July 2012, the DJB bills did not show this. We are surprised at the timing; why has the DJB suddenly found it necessary to give this estimate? We would like to have details break up with justification for this estimate, if only to allay our fears that this figure is being given as a cover for a predetermined plan of padding up the net operator rate in the PPP contracts,” the letter to the CM says. The NGO has raised questions about the DJB’s plans for its employees and sought replies on the proportion of the annual DJB work that is being currently contracted out to private agencies. It has also sought details about the net operator rate being charged by the private companies who will be hired as part of the PPP, the response time for addressing complaints of water supply cut off at the consumer end, details of how the companies will ensure round the clock supply and how they will be penalized for delay in services. The NGO wants assurance that the private companies will be able to live up to the promise of supplying water 24x7 at the district metering areas. Accusing the DJB of ushering in privatisation under the garb of reducing non-revenue water, the NGO said: “The DJB has referred to the reduction of the so-called non-revenue water. However, the contract agreement signed by the DJB for the Nangloi project shows that the private operator will not be required to reduce NRW for the first four years of the contract. This shows that the NRW is not an issue except for justifying the privatisation.”