Cut water supply of all VIPs if there is shortage: Kejriwal

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced in the Assembly on Wednesday that if there is water shortage in summer, the Delhi Jal Board will reduce and restrict supply to all VIP homes, including himself and his Cabinet ministers.

“I have given instructions to the DJB to reduce supply to everybody barring the President, Prime Minister and emergency installations like hospitals,” Kejriwal said in a special mention, also his first statement in the two-day sitting of the House.

He earlier took a dig at the three BJP-run municipal corporations for failing to get their finances in order and seeking funds from the Delhi government.

“The three mayors came to me claiming that the civic agencies were facing losses. I told them that the agencies will have to own up their lapses and losses,” he said.

Kejriwal dared the BJP councillors to resign from all the three civic corporations and let the Aam Aadmi Party run them.

“If the BJP is unable to run the civic agencies, let the AAP run them. I assure you that within one year we will bring them back to a profitable position,” Kejriwal said, claiming that the financial problems of the civic agencies were only because of corruption.

Reacting on the passing of the Delhi Value Added Tax (1st Amendment)  Bill in the House on Wednesday, Kejriwal said the new law will give traders relief from “forced refunds” at the end of the financial year.

He renewed his call to traders to pay maximum tax, and compared the payment of tax to an act of patriotism.

The Chief Minister said there is a lot of scope for increasing the number of taxpaying traders, who wholeheartedly supported the AAP despite being the traditional votebank of the BJP. 

“Only 1,200 Delhi traders pay 75 per cent of the total VAT collection in the city.
The rest 25 per cent of VAT comes from 10 lakh traders,” he said.

Kejriwal said many parties talk of “ease of doing business” but do not put it into practice. “Our government is committed to be a facilitator for doing business,” he said.

“We have taken two steps. We are going to create an information network on which details about tax evasion will be put. If we call traders to our office, it will only be for showing tax evasion,” he said.

He slammed the civic agencies for sealing shops. He said it was against the spirit of facilitating ease of doing business.

Earlier in the day, BJP councillors from the three municipal corporations staged a sit-in at the Delhi Secretariat over the AAP government’s “denial” of financial aid to the cash-strapped civic bodies.

They later gave a representation in the office of Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung.