Congress vows cashback scheme to encourage in saving water

New Delhi : The Delhi Congress on Thursday promised 30 paise cashback for each litre of water saved by Delhi residents and 20,000 litres of water a month free if it is voted to power in the February 8 assembly elections.

Claiming that the cashback plan will help the city save 25-30 per cent of drinking water, Delhi Congress president Subhash Chopra alleged that the AAP governments free water scheme "benefited water tanker mafia".

"The AAP government gave 20,000 litres of water per month free without any calculations. It never paid attention to water conservation," he claimed.

Water from abandoned, empty houses was going to "tanker mafias", the Congress' city unit president president claimed, adding if his party gets elected it will continue to give 20,000 litres of water free and also encourage people to save water. "We will give 30 paise per litre water saved. So, if a family saves 10,000 litres, it will get Rs 3,000. The money will be transferred directly into the bank accounts of people," Chopra said.

The Congress also alleged that the AAP government supplied "dirty" water to households and that the city registered a 70-per cent drop in water quality in the last five years. Delhi Jal Board vice chairperson Dinesh Mohania, however, accused the Congress of levelling "baseless" allegations without doing homework and said that 135 litres of water per capita per day is required for domestic consumption. "Considering there are five members in a family, more than 600 litres of water a day is needed in each household. It amounts to 20,000 litres of water each month," he said.