Dwarka: For the past few weeks, residents of Dwarka have been distressed and have complained about the insensitive attitude of authorities time and again who keep imposing penalties and fines even in these difficult times of Covid. Recently, the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) imposed a penalty on failure of producing certificates of cleaning the rain water harvesting pits by societies.
The societies were supposed to send certificates to the DJB by the end of May after cleaning the rain water harvesting pits, failing which, a penalty was imposed. Few societies were able to clean the pits but then a lockdown was imposed in Delhi in April and May.
Most of the societies could not get the pits cleaned. They have cited maintenance and control systems as reasons for not getting the work done. Firstly, as there was a lockdown, labourers were not available for cleaning and maintenance. Secondly, the MC members themselves were reluctant to call the labourers.
“When the entire country is going through the second wave of the pandemic. and strict lockdown is imposed, there should not be any compulsion on cleaning and submitting it on or before May 31. Instead, since rains are approaching soon, it should be done before that to serve the purpose of these pits,’’ said Bishen Dev, a resident of Dwarka.
“Pending any clarification from DJB, we got our pit cleaned and submitted the required certificate to the DJB within the stipulated date i.e. May 31, to avoid any kind of penalty in future,” said BB Jain, another resident of Dwarka.
Another resident, Gopalan said, “Since others are hesitant, we now want the date of cleaning to be extended. How can the cleaning work be carried out during the lockdown? Our contractor also offered to give us a certificate (fake) which we refused. Why are we succumbing to this kind of unreasonable target set earlier by DJB? We should stand united and insist on extending the date in view of lockdown.’’
President of Mahalaxmi CGHS spoke with the Chief Engineer RWH Harish Chandra regarding an extension of the time limit but he said that though he understands the situation, he needs orders from the higher authority.
Sudha Sinha, president, Federation of CGHS Dwarka, too agreed and took up the issue directly with senior authorities. She said that the federation has written a letter to CM Arvind Kejriwal, CEO DJB, MLA Gulab Singh and Chief Engineer RWH.
“This is not a usual situation and we have written to all high authorities to extend the date of sending the certificate of cleaning of RWH pits. We have demanded an extension of further three months. During the lockdown there was no reason for imposition of penalty and we want assurance that the DJB should be considerate and understand the problem as we regularly pay our taxes, dues and comply with all the formalities and regulations as responsible citizens,” she added.
Sinha added, “She is expecting a positive response as she talked to the Chief Engineer who understands the situation and agrees that during lockdown, cleaning of pits was not feasible. He said that he is expecting orders for extension of time as soon as the matter is being considered at the higher level.”