Big boon for people residing in unauthorised colonies as Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday announced a scheme in which people can get their septic tanks cleaned for free.

Delhi, the urban village has around 1,700 unauthorised colonies and around 430 have sewer lines while in rest of the colonies, people have septic tanks, which they get cleaned by hiring private parties.

Announcing the scheme Mukhyamantri Septic Tank Safai Yojana, Kejriwal said that many times people die while cleaning these septic tanks and this is a big step in making Delhi clean and putting an end to sewer deaths.

"The contractors or private companies that engage these people are not registered.  These companies dump the sludge in drains, contaminating the Yamuna river, Kejriwal said. The Delhi Government will get the septic tanks cleaned for free, he added further.

While residents can call on a helpline number and avail free septic tank cleaning

services, the authorized civic agency - Delhi Jal Board (DJB) will deploy 80 trucks,

along with trained staff to ensure the cleaning and maintenance of the septic tanks across Delhi.

According to Delhi Government, the scheme will also ensure the safety of sanitation workers and proper septic waste management to prevent contamination of river Yamuna.

"Around 45 lakh citizens in the authorised and unauthorised colonies of the Capital live in areas that do not have sewer pipelines and are depend on septic tanks. Whereas the process to install sewage pipelines across all the unauthorised colonies is going on, it is important to ensure the cleanliness of the septic tanks through safe means," Kejriwal added.

The scheme will fulfill the three-fold objective of collecting waste from the septic tanks in the colonies, ensuring safe disposal of the waste in the Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) of the Government, and deploy trained staff with all the safety equipment for the work of septic tank cleaning.

Nikhil Kumar, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Delhi Jal Board, said "The work for installing sewer pipelines in the other 400 colonies is in progress.

The rest of the colonies are equipped with septic tanks and the work for installing the sewer pipelines is still in progress. The Mukhyamantri Septic Tank Safai Yojana has been initiated to ensure the maintenance and cleaning of the septic tanks."