Jal Board shies away from RTI

No reply even on amount of water supply

Three north-east divisions of Delhi Jal Board have no answer to a Right to Information query on when the water board was formed.

The reply to RTI activist Rizwan Ali’s question on the formation of DJB was: The north-east division 1 and 3 of DJB stated “the question is not related to DJB”. North-east division 2 said no information was available regarding this query.

“This answer comes when the year of its formation is mentioned on the DJB website,” said Ali.

All the three divisions gave the same answer when asked about the year when the last appointments were made. “It is not related to DJB,” said the RTI reply. No replies were given to a question on for how long recruitments were stopped and the reason for it.

Only division 2 answered the query related to the responsibility of work undertaken by DJB. “The board is responsible for water supply and sewerage disposal of the area covered under the Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s jurisdiction,” stated the reply.

No replies were given on how much water is required in the city and how much is being supplied.

According to Ali, only division 2 forwarded the RTI query to the department concerned to give an answer about which areas in the city water treatment work is being carried out.

“The RTI said water treatment is carried out through recycling plants at Wazirabad and Haiderpur,” Ali said.

On how many more water treatment plants are needed, keeping in mind the current demand, no replies were given, he added.

“To a query about the number of employees required and the number present at each treatment plant, the reply said the question does not pertain to this division. This, after I mentioned in the RTI that it should be forwarded to the department concerned,” said Ali.

Of the three divisions, two of them answered queries on employees appointed and vacancies as well.

“In division 1, there are 9,253 employees and 927 seats are vacant. Division 2 has 3,717 employees and 745 vacancies in various posts,” the RTI reply stated.

To a query regarding the time span of changing water supply lines, no replies were given. However, a question on when are water supply lines replaced was also asked.

“While division 1 said there was no such information available, division 2 said the change depends on the material of the pipeline and division 3 stated that the condition of water lines is checked to ascertain whether they need change,” said Ali.