National Platform Against Water Privatization (NPAWP)

In a historic move, struggle groups against water privatization from different states came together in Nagpur and formed a national platform to fight against water privatization in India. In a daylong meeting organised by Citizen’s Front for Water Democracy (Delhi) and Focus on the Global South (Delhi) in collaboration with Nagpur Municipal Corporation Employees Union, more than 70 water activists from Delhi, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Karnataka launched formation of a National Platform. After a marathon session the meeting passed a resolution declaring formation of NATIONAL PLATFORM AGAINST WATER PRIVATIZATION (NPAWP).The meeting also came out with a Nagpur Declaration, a policy statement of the NPAWP giving details about its visions and objectives in the context of people’s right to water (Copy attached).

In this meeting, a national coordination committee was also constituted which elected Shri S.A Naqvi of Citizens Front for Water Democracy (CFWD, Delhi) as the National Coordinator of NPAWP. Besides Mr. Naqvi, the others who constituted the National Coordination Committee include Shri Jammu Anand of NMC Municipal Union, Nagpur as Regional Coordinator for Western Zone; Smt. Nirmla Sharma of Jagriti Mahila Samiti (Delhi) as Regional Coordinator for Northern Zone; Shri Rajinder Prabhakar of Peoples Campaign on Right to Water (Karnataka) for Southern Zone; Shri Subrato Chakrabarti of Guwahati Sanmilita Nagarik Adhikar Suraksha Manacha for North Eastern Zone; Shri Saurabh Sinha of Inner Voice Foundation of Ballia for Eastern zone and Mr. Rahmat Rawat of Manthan (Badwani) as Regional Coordinator for Central Zone. Besides regional coordinators, the others who are part of the national coordination committee include Raman Kanan of Public Services International, Afsar Jafri of Focus on the Global South, Dr. A.K. Arun of Yuva Bharat, Akhil Gogoi of Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti, Ms Kiran Shaheen of Pani Hakk Abhiyan, Gaurav Diwedi of Manthan, Sanjay Sharma of Water Workers Allaince, Pranjal Dixshit of Mumbai and Vinay Baindur of Bangalore.

On 1^st July, the National Platform against Water Privatization and the NMC Municipal Union staged a demonstration against water privatization in Nagpur and met with the Municipal Commissioner of Nagpur in his office and gave a memorandum demanding for the immediate termination of the contract with the Orange City Water. It also demanded for the remunicipalisation of the water supply and distribution in Nagpur. 

The national platform is a unique initiative to build solidarity among different movements and campaigns from India who are engaged in any activities related to water to ensure water as a common good and determine human rights to water. This national body of water activists also decided to extend all support to movements opposing dams, river diversions or river linking.

The fight against any form of water privatization will be the key agenda of the NATIONAL PLATFORM. It will help each other and seek strength from each other in this difficult time when democratic governments in the states have been sold out to corporations. The national platform will contact with different groups who are campaigning against water privatization in their cities to come together. They will share their experiences, documents and strategies to gain strength and knowledge from each other.

The NPAWP will soon initiate mass movement against government’s undemocratic moves to privatize and commodify water. The NPAWP decided to raise all issues relating to water like its environmental aspects, ecological concerns, dams, rivers etc and oppose all forms of water commercialization.

The NPAWP through a resolution rejected the National Water Policy of 2012 as well as the draft report issued recently by the Y.K. Alagh Committee, the National Water Framework Laws, which promotes privatization of water.

The NPAWP also declared the Uttrakhand disaster as man-made disaster and a result of callus and anti environment policies of the Central and the State Governments. It passed a resolution opposing such infrastructure development anywhere in India which compromises environmental concerns for the sake of growth and development.

The next meeting of the Platform will be organised in Delhi soon.

Thanks for covering this press briefing.

For any further information, please contact

S.A. Naqvi      Jammu Anand       Afsar Jafri

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[1] International Financial Institutions, like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB)

Residents want Reliance BSES out

East Delhi RWAs say since the power companies are running into losses, they should exit from services. Following the exit of Reliance Infra from the Delhi Airport Express Metro line, the Resident Welfare Associations (RWA) of east Delhi demanded that the Reliance-owned Discoms — BSES Rajdhani Power Limited (BRPL) and BSES Yamuna Power Limited (BYPL) — that distribute power to Delhi should also withdraw from the services.

The BSES claims that its loss (revenue gap) is Rs 19,505 crore. Agitated by the constant hike in power tariffs and poor service delivery, the residents alleged that the loss-making organisation should withdraw from the power sector as well. “If you are really making losses, why don’t you back out, the way you have backed out from the airport metro project,” said B S Vohra, of East Delhi RWA Joint Front.

 

“Since Reliance Power has also been claiming that they are running into losses for the last one decade, these firms should also exit,” added Anil Bajpai, president of East Delhi Resident’s Forum. Bajpai also said that the people of Delhi have been facing long power cuts and getting hefty bills. The companies are also known to have failed to provide payments to power suppliers, he added. To recover the revenue gap, a surcharge of eight per cent is charged on all the consumers to reduce the losses, the RWA officials said. However, BSES every year claims that the revenue gap has been increasing and as a result the surcharge should increase. “Our tariffs have not increased as we have wanted. As a result we cannot make up the gap,” said an official of the power department. The RWAs have also criticised the chief minister Sheila Dikshit for supporting the discoms. “We expect chief minister and Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission to intervene and address the problem, and not safeguard the interest of private power companies,” said M M Mehra, secretary, Resident Welfare Association of Karkardooma. 

 

@dna  Link with thanks

Must view : Ice skating on Indian Music : looks great

Rescheduling of Samya Badh Jagrukta .....

Dear Sir,

 

I hope all  RWA Bhagidars have received an invitation today (01/07/13) from the CM (forwarded by SDM G/N vide his letter DC(E)/Bhagidari Cell/2-13/2216-2655 dated 21/06/2013, rescheduling the above Shivir on 14/07/2013 at Yamuna Sports Complex. 

 

This Shivir was earlier scheduled on 23/06/2013 at the same venue.  When we and may be other Bhgidars reached the venue, they were told by the Guard that the meeting had been postponed.  The meeting was postponed without informing Bhagidars, at least we did not receive any intimation.  Surprisingly, the  present letter does not have even a single word of apology either from the SDM or the CM !  Perhaps apologising is not the culture in the govt.  Poor Bhagidars!

 

Secondly, the SDM wants a soft as well as a hard copy of the list of office bearers of all the RWAs.  Further surprising, no Email address or Telephone/Mobile number has been provided on his letter head.  I don't know where to send the soft copy!  May be we are expected to visit his office to know his email address!

 

 

Ram Gupta

General Secretary

Priyadarshini Vihar RWA 

Must read : Cyber crooks create fake Delhi Jal Board site

NEW DELHI: If you recently paid your water bills online, your money may have landed in the pockets of cyber crooks. The Delhi Jal Board has lodged a complaint against a fake department website, very similar to the real one, that may have been used to dupe consumers. 

A source said that the fake website was blocked after DJB's chief engineer approached the crime branch. The team of cyber cell experts is investigating the case and an FIR under the information technology (66A) Act has been registered, a senior police officer said. 

The fake website, www.delhijalboard.in, looks remarkably like the original website. The crooks have also managed to forge the home ministry and Delhi government logos, police sources said. The fake website contained data from the original website and had options for direct bill payments. 

Sources said the Internet Service Provider was contacted for more details and to block the fake website. Cops are now trying to trace the IP address of the website through which they would zoom in to the location and computer where it was created , a source said. 

with thanks : Times of India : LINK : for detailed news

Real websites: www.delhjalboard.nic.in www.djb.gov.in 

CITIZENS FRONT FOR WATER DEMOCRACY : PRESS RELEASE

DATED: 1^ST JULY 2013

The water activists, trade unions, NGO and RWAs from all over India gathered in Nagpur and constituted a National Platform to fight against water privatization in India. The activists from Delhi, Assam, North East, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Bihar were present in the meeting.

Shri SA Naqvi was elected as the National Coordinator of the NPAWP and Smt. Nirmla Sharma was elected as Regional Coordinator for Northern Zone along with Shri Jammu Anand from west, Shri Rajinder Prabhakar from South, Shri Subrato Chakrabarti from North East, Shri Saurabh from East and Shri Rahamat from Central zone. Shri Raman Kanan, Afsar Jafri, Dr. A.K. Arun, Ms Kiran Shaheen, Pranjal, Gaurav Diwedi, Sanjay Sharma and Vinay Bundur were elected in the National team.

The National Platform will raise voice and initiate people’s moment against water privatization in India. The NPAWP is of the view that real owners of water are communities and governments are only custodians of water. The water privatization is being imposed forcefully on people for ensuring corporate profits.

The activists were of the view that when after the bad experiences of water privatization there is a trend of re-municipalization of water in Europe the only driving force to water privatization in India is corruption.

The NPAWP through a resolution rejected the Y.K. Alagh committee report, draft National Water Frame Work Laws and National Water Policy 2012 and all efforts of comodification of water. Soon NPAWP will initiate mass movement against Government’s undemocratic moves to privatize and commodify people’s water. NPAWP policy statement described as Nagpur declaration has emphasized people’s right to water. NPAWP will raise all issues relating to water like its environmental aspects, ecological concerns, dams, rivers etc and oppose all forms of water commercialization. (copy attached)

NPAWP declared the Uttrakhand disaster as man-made disaster and a result of callus and anti environment policies of Central and State Governments. It passed a resolution opposing such infrastructure development anywhere in India. The new National body will also extend support to movements opposing dams, river diversions or river linking.

The NPAWP has plans to raise a wide spread movement against water privatization in Delhi. It will take the opposition of water privatization to each and every street of Delhi and will educate the people how the PPP projects are influenced by corruption, how Delhi Government ensured the corporate profits and increasing the water tariffs. NPAWP will ask the Political parties, Political candidates and representative their stand on water privatization, corruption in PPP projects, increasing water tariffs and extending benefits to corporate in forthcoming Delhi assembly elections.

S.A. Naqvi

National Coordinator

NPAWP

RWAs Directory of Delhi on www.RWABhagidari.com

Plz log on to www.RWABhagidari.com to view the RWAs Directory of Delhi. 

Thanks

B S Vohra

www.RWABhagidari.com

www.RWABhagidari.blogspot.in

Delhi: you'll get water quality check only once in 27 yrs

After reading about the deaths reportedly linked to drinking of contaminated water at NCERT colony in south Delhi, if the quality of water you drink is worrying you, your anxiety is not unfounded.

Chances are your water supply would be quality checked only once in 27 years.

The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) lifts on an average 400 samples across the city per day. However, considering the number of buildings and public places, the number is extremely small. Census 2011 puts the number of houses at 40,00,000.  Even if we consider this statistic, excluding public places, the chance of a particular house figuring again in random sampling comes after 10,000 days — about 27 years.

“There are 1,500 planned colonies. Then there are several unauthorised colonies, which also consume water. The small sample indicates that DJB is unable to reach colony levels,” said Dunu Roy of NGO Hazard Centre.

Debashree Mukherjee, DJB CEO, says, “This (400) is not a small size. This is over and above samples tested at water treatment plants. For other areas, our tests are ample.”

with thanks : Hindustan Times : LINK

Delhi: confusion over who maintains pipelines

A war of words erupts between the consumers and the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) every time people start falling ill after consuming contaminated water.

While Delhiites blame the DJB and expect it to take care of leaking pipelines, the agency claims that contamination mostly happens at the consumers’ end and that it is their (consumer’s) responsibility to change the ferrule.

A ferrule is the point where consumers’ pipe connects with the main supply pipeline.

Sanjam Chima, DJB’s Consultant (PR), cites the provisions of the Delhi Jal Board Act, 1998, for it. As per a clause titled ‘Power to require water supply to be taken and to require maintenance of service pipes’, consumers are supposed to lay the delivery pipe for every sanctioned connection through a licensed plumber at their own cost from the main to their homes, including the ferrule.

Also, the Act say that it is the duty of the consumer to maintain, repair and replace, whenever required, such delivery pipes at his own cost. Customers are to get these pipes inspected at their cost once in 15 years.

“If found rusted or leaking, the work for repair or replacement shall be done by the consumer through a licenced plumber,” said Chima.

Ankush Wohra, president of New Delhi South Extension I (NDSE I) RWA, however, finds this logic weird. “If the DJB changes or repairs it, that will ensure uniformity.

Otherwise someone can put a bigger ferrule for more water. If the DJB Act actually doesn’t permit it, the relevant provisions should be changed.”

with thanks : Hindustan Times : LINK

Power regulator to announce revised tariff for 2013 by July

The new power tariffs for this year will be in place by July, said Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) on Wednesday.

The announcement by the power regulator came after the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity asked the DERC to ensure that the tariff order is in place by April every year.

Taking note of the delay in announcing a tariff order in April by DERC, the tribunal has asked the city power regulator to enforce it on time in the future. “The new tariff order for this year will be in place by July. We have not been in touch with the government regarding subsidy on power tariff,” PD Sudhakar, DERC chairman.

“There are seven utilities who had to submit their petitions and we kept receiving the petitions spread over December to February. We also had to change the consultant who was engaged with the process of tariff determination as there was some conflict of interest. One discom also decided to amend its petition and hence all this led to delays,” said Sudhakar.

“We will try our best to enforce this by April itself in the future,” he added.

The tribunal also said in its order that the exercise of providing relief to the consumers by way of subsidy should be undertaken only after the tariff order has been announced and there should be no delay due to this.

with thanks : Hindustan Times : LINK

Self defence camp at Geeta colony