DJB faces crunch in funds, sewer cleaning system hit

The funding for the government’s flagship project of mechanised cleaning of sewer system to tackle the menace of manual scavenging has been impacted as the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) faces an acute financial crisis amid the ongoing tussle between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led elected government and bureaucrats.
In a letter written on August 12, water minister Atishi said that the 189 contractors under this scheme are facing “critical condition” on account of non-payment of invoices of sewer cleaning machines deployed by DJB. “This project for cleaning of sewers through fabricated sewer cleaning machines was initiated to discontinue the manual sewer cleaning and to provide safe working atmosphere to all workers. This project was intended to save human lives and to support disadvantaged sections of the society,” said the communication to DJB CEO.
HT has seen a copy of the letter.
HT reached out to DJB CEO, but did not get any response to request for comment.
The minister wrote that earlier the payments were released to these contractors on a monthly basis. But now more than six months have passed and their payment is yet to be released, which is leading to standstill of operations of these sewer cleaning machines, she added.
“The mechanised system of sewer cleaning is the most important step towards the eradication of manual scavenging… these workers belong to the most disadvantaged sections,” the letter said.
”The Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DICCI) had written to the minister flagging critical condition of 800+ employees and 189 contractors working under this scheme. The total amount of these 189 contractors pending till July 2024 is ₹22.9 crore,” said a communication from Ravi Kumar Narra, who heads DICCI, dated August 7. He added that contractors have been drained empty and are “incapable to bear the day-to-day operational cost to run these machines” and many had “defaulted on the monthly EMIs on loans.”
Responding to HT’s query, a statement issued by the Delhi government said: “It is true that there is a problem in the amount released by the finance department to DJB. Due to this, many works of public interest are coming to a standstill, this is true. But we are fighting for the public at every level. Since the ‘Services’ Department is not with the Delhi government, we do not have direct control over the officials. Still, we will continue to get the work of the people of Delhi done by resorting to every available option.”
However, the mechanised sewage cleaning project is only one of the projects facing hurdles due to funds crunch, which the government called an “artificial financial crisis”.
Delhi minister Atishi on Thursday alleged that an “artificial financial crisis” in DJB has led to the Capital turning into a “living hell” due to overflowing drains. She also potentially opened up another front in the row between the AAP and bureaucrats by putting the blame for the predicament on chief secretary Naresh Kumar.
Officials in Kumar’s office hit back, accusing the AAP-led Delhi government of “policy paralysis”. Atishi had directed the chief secretary to ensure adequate deployment of manpower and machinery in every part of the city to ensure that there are no sewer overflows, Atishi also called for DJB funds to be released at the earliest, claiming that out of an approved budget of ₹7195 crore, only ₹400 crore has been released to DJB so far.
An official aware of the matter said that the funds crisis has also hit other projects of DJB, impacting laying of new sewer pipelines, sewers are not being cleaned on time, repair of water pipelines, repair of roads dug up during laying of pipeline among other projects.