Delhi Congress president Devender Yadav wrote to the Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) seeking a probe into the Rs 17,575 crore scam in the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) over leakage of water from the DJB being diverted for the 'tanker mafia' to misappropriate.
Following AAP and Congress not continuing their alliance for the Delhi Assembly elections in 2025, Yadav, in his letter to the CVC, pointed out that there has been a "significant uptick" in the volume of leakage of water in recent years, as indicated by Government-provided data.
Highlighting the figures climbing from 42 per cent in 2019-20 to 58.28 per cent in 2022-23, he said "This 16.28 per cent surge in the leakage of water over a span of three years is deeply worrisome, despite the fact that the Delhi Jal Board had made substantial spend from its budgetary allocation for the replacement and installation of supply lines. With an annual allocation of approximately Rs 30 crore for metering and plucking the water leakage, the escalation of water leakage has become more perplexing."
He added that even if 10-20 per cent leakages are justified due to transmission and distribution loss, the approximate loss of Rs 17,575 crore suffered by the DJB is much bigger. "In the three areas where Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects are operational, leakages stand at just 26 per cent, and such a significant disparity has raised suspicions of organised malpractice by the tanker mafia, officials and ruling party politicians in the water supply," he stated.