Reply sought from Delhi Jal Board !

Dear Shri Vohra ji,

Sometime in Feb. 2013 DJB had changed meters on their own in our Block B1A Janakpuri in many of the flats. However in some of the flats which were locked or where the residents refused to get the new meters in lieu of old working/nonworking one, they were not changed. Where the new meters were installed no bills have been served on them since March 2013 in spite reminders. Meter readers visit every two months and record the readings. Some flat owners of new meters received bills claiming arbitrary charges not based on readings. When they complained their bills were taken back for rectification. I cannot understand why DJB is not serving the bills and why other flat owners were not extended the scheme of replacing the water meters as done in block B1A.

Vohraji, please take up the matter with DJB to find out how meters were replaced in some flats and not in the entire area and why claims of water charges are not being made for more than one year?

Regards,

Satyendra Malik

B1A Janakpuri

Dear Vohra ji,

B3A Block of Janakpuri is a low income group DDA apartment colony. The water meters were installed by MCD which were transferred to Jal Board with assets and liabilities. About 85 meters in 300 flats are lying as stopped. Jal Board has given to RWA in writing that they would replace them. But no action. They are charging average rate arbitrarily. When the information was sought through RTI to know the basis of average charging, no reply was given. With the intervention of Central Information Commissioner, only one meter at B3A/58-A, Janakpuri was replaced. 

I suggest Shri Vohra to take up the issue with Lt. Governor.

S.K. Chandan,

Chairman, RWA, B3A Block Janakpuri, New Delhi.

No DJB Audit, Since years : Your comments please !

RTI Filed by B S Vohra revealed that no audit is being done at Delhi Jal Board since 2008 - 09 onwards. As a result, we can neither judge the profitability nor locate any leakages of funds & discrepancies as no Audited statements as well Audit report is available. Than how come DJB  is continuously raising the water Tariff by 10% every year + 60% as sewerage charges, since last SIX years, putting a huge burden on the general public  ????? : East Delhi RWAs Joint Front

Chahe BSES ho ya fir DJB sub c__r ya youn kahie D__u hain.  Most disgusting thing is what was the Chairperson of DJB doing all these years?  You are doing an excellent job Vohra ji, we are all with you. R. N. Gupta, Priyadarshini Vihar RWA

Though I am a little unwell but for such Noble cause where interest of whole delhi, Rich and Poor is involved I am available to join / strengthen ÿour Team. Life mei Paise to sab kamate hei, Logo ki Duhaye kamane ka Maza hi kuch or hei. Keep up your fight Janab. Shiv Lal Watwani

Keep it up bro.... Neema Bhagat


It's a serious concern and need to be highlighted. Corruption must be checked in DJB. Sandeep Kapoor

You have rightly requested the LG to order a CAG audit of DJB for the last so many years. LG is a busy official so better go to his palace and seek an  instant appointment if you do not get any response within the first week of July. Matter is most urgent and quite serious also.  Prof. S. Sitaraman

Dear Residents ........Read the SHOCKING affairs of Delhi Jal Board (DJB) at RWABhagidari.blogspot.com This is high handed ness of Govt Deptt. 10 Percent hike every year by a Govt Deptt  for the last couple of years and still continuing and that too for most essential life saving item is a height of cheating  by GOVT to its citizens. We need to unite and raise our efforts for justice. S L Watwani

SHOCKING!  What was the Delhi Govt  doing all these years ? R. N. Gupta Priyadarshini Vihar RWA

RTI में यह बात खुल कर सामने आई है की 2008 - 09 से अब तक दिल्ली जल बोर्ड का कोई भी ऑडिट नही हुआ......

जो दिल्ली जल बोर्ड सारी दिल्ली को पानी सप्लाइ करता है, जिस दिल्ली जल बोर्ड की करोड़ों की टर्नोवर है, जिस दिल्ली जल बोर्ड को करोड़ों रुपए नई पाइप लाइन्स डालने के लिए सरकार से मिलते हैं, उस दिल्ली जल बोर्ड का कोई भी ऑडिट नही करवाया जाता....... 

RTI में यह बात खुल कर सामने आई है की 2008 - 09 से अब तक दिल्ली जल बोर्ड का कोई भी ऑडिट नही हुआ...... यानी की किसी को भी नही पता की दिल्ली जल बोर्ड की असलीयत क्या है..... क्या सब कुछ ठीक है या कुछ गड़बड़ है..... कितना पैसा कलेक्ट किया गया और कितना कलेक्ट होना था..... कितना पैसा किधर किधर खर्चा गया..... कितना प्रॉफिट असल में हुआ इसका कोई परमणिक डॉक्युमेंट नही है क्योंकि दिल्ली जल बोर्ड ने पिछले कई सालों से कोई भी ऑडिट नही करवाया..... 

hairangi है की इस सब के बावजूद, दिल्ली जल बोर्ड, हर साल 10% पानी का टॅरिफ बड़वा देती है और लोगों को उस पर 60% sewer चार्ज भी देना पड़ता है.....  

इसलिए, इस RTI के मद्दे नज़र हम एल जी साहिब से गुहार लगाते हैं की जल्द से जल्द दिल्ली जल बोर्ड का ऑडिट करवाया जाए और पानी का दाम जब से ऑडिट नही हुआ है, उतना कम कर देना चाहिए और excess कलेक्षन्स जनता को वापिस कर देनी चाहिए.

Thasnks

B S Vohra
East Delhi RWAs Joint Front - Federation

New power tariffs likely to be declared next week

NEW DELHI: In the coming week, Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission is expected to announce new power tariffs. While political parties are gearing up to protest in the eventuality of a rise, the commission says tariff announcements are in line with the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity's directions to maintain regular power supply in the city. The regulator also clarified that the ongoing CAG audit will have no bearing on the tariff announcement.

Though the content of the announcement is still a matter of speculation, sources say discoms are likely to be allowed higher power purchase costs especially in light of the recent spat between BSES and NTPC over payment issues.

BSES discoms are counting heavily on higher tariffs in order to make regular payments to NTPC and other generators and also to get financial assistance from banks and lending agencies. The Commission has also recognized a Rs 11,400 revenue gap for all discoms to be recovered in future years, so that is expected to have a considerable impact on tariff as well.

Other announcements expected are time-of-the-day metering, with the DERC toying with the option of extending the service to domestic category consumers. Consumer activists and stakeholders had opposed this in the recently held public hearing. DERC has also said that the ongoing CAG audit will not have any bearing on the coming tariff announcement.

"CAG is doing the past years' audit while we are doing an estimation for the future. It's our job to ensure discoms maintain regular electricity supply to Delhi and enable them to make payments. Once the audit is complete and the findings disclosed, we will analyze it accordingly but, at present, tariff determination will continue," said a DERC official.

Earlier this year, DERC finally acknowledged discoms have a massive regulatory overhang that has to be cleared and approved a Rs 8000-crore liquidation plan over an eight-year period. "The liquidation of the revenue gap of Rs 3,643 crore for BRPL, Rs 1,998 crore for BYPL and Rs 2,359 crore for TPDDL is proposed in a scheduled manner through equal instalments, to avoid tariff burden on consumers. The annual instalments allowed to be liquidated are Rs 424 crore for BSES Yamuna Pvt Ltd (BYPL), Rs 769 crore for BSES Rajdhani Pvt Ltd (BRPL) and Rs 478 crore for Tata Power Delhi Distribution Ltd (TPDDL)," the DERC letter said.

with thanks : Times of India : LINK

Letter to Hon'ble LG - Sh Najeeb Jung ji for the immediate CAG Audit of Delhi Jal Board

2^nd  July, 2014

Sh. Najeeb Jung ji,
Lt. Governor,

Delhi

Sub : No Audit of DJB's Accounts : 2008 - 09 onwards : RTI reply.

Dear Sir,

While the Activists & RWAs of Delhi are continuously asking for the CAG Audit of DISCOMs, an RTI reply from DELHI JAL BOARD has shocked us. The RTI reply clearly shows that no  regular Audit / CAG Audit is being done there, even though it is a body of Govt. of NCT of Delhi. The RTI reply clearly means that its accounting transactions have not been vouched since last six years atleast. It’s Assets & Liabilities have not been verified & it’s internal controls have not been studied.

Surprisingly, HOW the Tariff of DJB can automatically be hiked by 10% every year, while, we don’t have any Audited Financial statements to check the quantum of revenue it collected & how the money was spent on various sources. We don’t have any Audit reports to check even its profitability as well any discrepancies.

 
The RTI reply clearly states that, Accounts from 2008-09 onwards are yet to be Audited. It means that Accounts for the year 2008-09, 2009-10, 2010-11, 2011-12, 2012-13, 2013-14 are yet to be audited. It clearly raises a BIG DOUBT over the functioning of DJB.

Therefore, we hereby request the Hon’ble LG of Delhi to order 1. immediate CAG Audit of Delhi Jal Board 2. Roll back the Water Tariff hiked for the last six years and 3. DJB to make a refund of the excess collections made in the last 6 years, as a relief to the consumers.

We are expecting an earliest reply from you as well a bit of your valued time to meet you to discuss the issue.

Thanks,

B S Vohra

President,

EAST DELHI RWAs JOINT FRONT

www.RWABhagidari.com

www.RWABhagidari.blogspot.in

For years, no external audit of DJB's accounts : Hindustan Times

Gas Price details : Sent by a Reader : Your comments please !

People are talking about the Reliance Gas Price controversy. What is it all about? In case you've lost track of things, here is a summary :

1. In the late 90s, an oil company, Cairn, made discoveries of significant gas in the Krishna Godavari (KG) basin. In an effort to create a level playing field to allow private and public companies to bid for the same projects - all on lands and seas owned by the government, the government created a New Exploration and Licensing Policy (NELP)

2. Under the first NELP plan, bids were called for contractors to explore and develop these Government-owned potential oil fields. Reliance Industries teamed up with a Canadian firm, Niko Resources (90% Reliance, 10% Niko) and won the right to explore and develop 12 out of 24 blocks offered. (You can find details on the Indian govt website here: petroleum.nic.in/NELP-I.doc).

3. Since then there have been several more NELP bids, and Reliance has won a few of those.

4. Reliance-Niko outbid ONGC, Cairn and others to these blocks.

5. The basic bidding criteria - and you can read a sample bid document herehttp://petroleum.nic.in/nelp91.pdf if you have the interest and patience - was the amount of profit share offered to government of India by the bidder, and the lowest operating cost the bidder commits to that it can adjust every year. These bidding criteria have changed slightly since - but that is not germane to the issue.

6. Here's a simple way to understand it. The government owns the fields: some are on ground, some are in shallow water and some are in deep water but all in Indian territory. The winning bidder would explore and develop those fields at its cost. It would bid what its cost was - the lower the better. Once the gas was found, it was allowed to first recover its stated costs, and then pay revenue share to the government. If gas was not found, it would simply return the fields to the government - indeed 13 of those initial 24 fields were returned to the government. These two factors: committed low operating cost and committed high revenue share to government helped government determine who would win the fields - in each case, government calculated the most valuable economic option to itself.

7. In effect, the winning bidder merely had a contract to operate on government property, then apply some fixed costs for equipment and some variable costs of manpower and ops - and produce gas for all of us.

8. The first contracts were awarded in 2000, Reliance found gas, and signed its first long term contract in 2002 - for 17 years - with NTPC - another government undertaking - to provide it gas at US$ 2.34 per million British thermal units - or mBTUs. This is the price they committed to charge from 2002 to 2019 - which catered for all their present and future anticipated costs.

9. A little after this time the Ambani brothers split - remember that? -and the big bone of contention then was that Anil wanted gas from RIL for his energy project RNRL and finally the agreement was that he would get it at the same price that RIL was giving it to NTPC at: $2.34 per mBTU

10. During this time, the price of natural gas globally went up significantly. This wasn't due to increased costs - it's perhaps closer to supply and demand and also to how a cartel like OPEC operates - you set the price you think you can get away with, regardless of input costs.

11. While this could be good news for countries like India with large oil and gas reserves - it shouldn't really make much difference to an operator who has taken a government field on a lease - after all, his costs - of rig equipment and people's salaries were reasonably fixed - or move in a slow band.

12. Of course, this was a great opportunity - and Mukesh didn't use it just screw the government-owned NTPC here, he screwed over his own brother too. He followed in his dad's footsteps of "fixing" government to change all the norms once he had won the contract - and went and worked hard to break the contract in 2009.

13. They asked Jaipal Reddy, the then concerned minister, to raise the price to $4.20 per mBTU and he told them to sod off. Their ostensible reason was increased cost of production - but, interestingly, at the same time, Reliance said in writing (that note here:http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2009-06-18/news/27646349_1_mmbtu-block-kg-d6-fertiliser-and-power-units : that their actual cost of extracting the gas and bringing it onshore was $0.8945 per mBTU - i.e. not even 90 cents - so while they were earlier making a profit of $1.44 per mBTU, they wanted to screw over the Government and Anil by making a profit of $3.30 per mBTU - more than double as much)

14. Undeterred by the minister asking them to bugger off, Mukesh did the classic Reliance gambit - he got Jaipal thrown out of the Ministry and shunted elsewhere and replaced by buddy Murli Deora. This dude in turn got Pranab Mukherjee - yes, our current President - to call some meeting of some temporary committee called the Empowered Group - to rubber-stamp Mukesh's demand to charge $4.20 per mBTU - remember this is for gas produced on our land not Reliance's - from now on.

15. So Anil and NTPC went to court about this. The case is still dragging through courts - and the Government isn't backing its own company NTPC in the fight. Anil was likely neutralised elsewhere and hasn't moaned too much about it lately.

16. That's what Mukesh is being paid now. And that price, for our gas produced from our land and our seas, is what we pay from our taxes - and that impacts the prices of the inputs to our fertiliser plants, and impacts the price of our foods, our transport systems - and our monthly expenditure. But, hey, that's not enough. Senior Ambani found a way to screw us over again.

17. Remember, there was a clause which allowed the operator to first take back the money equivalent to their set-up costs, and then deliver profits to the government after that? When Mani Shankar Aiyer was Minister, in 2004, Reliance had asked for and got approval to spend Capex of $2.39 billion to produce 40 million metric standard cubic meters of gas per day. . This basically meant that Reliance was first allowed to claim this $2.39 billion - some Rs. 10,000 crores - before it paid a paisa of revenue share to the government.

18. In just two years, however, they managed to find friend Murli Deora in the seat of Oil & Gas power in 2006 after poor Mani Shankar Aiyar was shunted out - and magically got him to approve almost 4 times the earlier approved amount of Capex - US$8.80 billion - or Rs. 50,000 crores for just twice the capacity. One would expect that the relative cost of Capex would go down and efficiency would go up as you simply double the capacity on existing wells - as happens everywhere else in the world. Especially in a fanatically-cost-efficient organisation like Reliance (we all know how they never pay their suppliers on time.)

19. But no - Reliance apparently wanted to eat more money for itself  - before we got our own money back from our own oil fields. This basically means that we the people see nothing from our own property till Mukesbhai gets his Rs. 50,000 crores first. When asked about this wonderful generous gift of Rs. 40,000 additional crores to Reliance, Murli Deora claims no memory - see the interview at 09.00 onwards here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtAy1Y7Lv9I if you want to see his apparent innocence where he says "You don't expect Ministers to remember small details" (like Rs 40,000 crores here or there presumably)

20. Further proof of padding or "gold-plating" came in the CAG report - and in an investigation done by the Indian Embassy in Singapore, about a mysterious organisation called Bio Metrix which was a beneficiary of Reliance's inflated costs which suddenly invested Rs. 6,500 crores into Reliance from Singapore based on loans given to it by an Indian bank on no declared collateral. Imagine that - walking into an Indian bank as an unknown company in Singapore and asking for Rs. 6,500 crores in loans to invest in equity of Indian companies. And getting it  Of course, the company was controlled by known Reliance network figures - and seems to be a clear case of over-billing in India, having your own benami company as a vendor, paying it overseas and then circling the money back into India, into your own companies. Sweet, na?

21. And you know what happened after that - the investigation by India's own embassy goes nowhere and the CAG Vinod Rai was shunted out and replaced by Shashi Kant Sharma - the prior defence secretary, well-known in arms circles for routing kickbacks.

22. But it doesn't end there. The Ambani  ability to fix the Congress government continued. Reliance jockeys for a higher price than the $4.20 - from our own wells. And to show it means business, it suddenly claims a huge drop in production - in other words, it's a threat. "Give us a higher price, or we'll go on strike, on your wells".

23. The government, as always, is very accommodating - it dusts off a well-meaning bureaucrat, Rangarajan - and he does some laughable calculations and determines that the new price should be $8.40 per mBTU - an exact 100% hike. Imagine this - paying 4 times more for gas from our own fields - when the capex was long-invested and gone and opex hasn't gone up anywhere near this much. In fact, in the only gas market in the world, the US, the price is even currently well below $5 per mBTU, including all profits from owned wells. But we want to pay our man more than twice that for gas he is getting out of our wells. (You can see how much more we are paying by looking at all historical prices here: http://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/hist/rngwhhdd.htm)

24. Once this is lined up, Reliance magically discovers and announces that its capacity will go back up in the future - its stock price nudges up. By now our man has BJP and Congress on his side. But when the AAP problem happens and the unspeakable occurs - all these people and Ambani included have FIRs registered against them for gross theft and corruption, he pulls the strings and both the BJP and Congress collude to make the AAP government fall in 72 hours after the FIR.

25. That doesn't stop the process though. The ministries push for a price hike from $4.20 to $8.40 per mBTU starting April 1 - a clear attempt to push the change before the elections and before the public makes a big deal out of it, who knows what the results will be.

26. Arvind Kejriwal and the AAP pick up on it, petition the Election Commissioner - and he sees sense in the complaint and orders a halt to the hikes for another 60 days. Pretty much till June 1. But presumably Ambani isn't worried - he has moved his focus from Congress to Modi now - and he feels it'll be pushed through after the polls.

27. But $8.40 isn't where it ends either. You can glimpse the master plan in little bits. The puppet-master has now moved his strings to Modi - as is now apparent, with a Gujarat government-owned gas company now petitioning the government that the price be raised to - believe it or not - $14 per mBTU. That's 4 times the international market price. Copies of the documents from the Gujarat government body are available athttp://www.aamaadmiparty.org/gas-pricing-the-complete-truth-exposed-by-aap

That's a higher cost for gas into all our industries - from fertilizer to transport to energy coal and more. And, when that happens, we'll pay the higher price for that in the things we consume too. 

Jai Hind

Fd by Watwani ji

Let's plant for the planet

Dear Sir,

The increasing deterioration of environment in delhi had made me to request you again to help us in planting more and more trees in delhi.

We have been successful in planting many trees in delhi. We have already raised fund, only we are looking for free spaces in delhi/NCR. Please help us in identifying the free spaces.Your kind help means a lot, it will provide delhites a healthier environment.  

Hope to hear from you soon, Sir. Lets plant for the planet.

Regards, 

Vinni

RESPECTED VOHRA JI 

SEEN THE ARTICLE. OUR SOCIETY NAVRACHNA APPARTMENT HAS SPACE FOR PLANTATION BY THE SIDE OF BOUNDARY WALL THEY CAN INSPECT THE SITE AND CAN PLANT TREE ACCORDINGLY. 

CHANDER MOHAN 
NAVRACHNA APPARTMENT 
EAST ARJUN NAGAR 
DELHI 11032 
NEAR DR HEADGEVAR HOSPITAL, 
KARKARDOOMA COURT

Bad roads in Nangloi - 110086

I am living at A-190/4 Inder Enclave Phase – I Nangloi Delhi-110086 our society’s roads are in very bad condition and due to this drain water blocked in road and people are facing problem to going anywhere.

So are requested you please prepare the our society’s lane number 04 and get resolve the issue.

We are very thankful to you if you will take action in this issue and solve the problem on immediate basis.

  

Regards,

Prakash Rawat

9560073532

Public Hearing DERC : B S Vohra on Delhi Aajtak

DERC - Sham of a Hearing ...... was it done on purpose ? It was a Circus out there not a Hearing

Dear All,

Fool me once, Shame on You ...... Fool me twice, Shame on You ...... Fool me thrice, SHAME ON ME ..... 

This was the third consecutive Public Hearing that was Hijacked by Politicians and each time I had prepared hard for the hearing. This time I made the additional effort of coming back from Palampur a few days earlier only to attend a Sham of a meeting.

But why did I say .... was it done on purpose ? ...... As I entered, I noticed the front row was vacant and seemed reserved. The Hearing started sharp at 10:30 am and many RWA members started taking turns to speak ..... I have been appearing in Public Hearings since 2008 and have never seen most of the the initial speakers ........ at around 11:15 am some senior Delhi Congress leaders along with chamchaas walked in and occupied the front row.

A few speakers later Mr Mukesh Sharma's name was called as the next in line ...... at this the RWA members who have been regulars in the past many years objected as not one of them had yet spoken and where from had all these people turned up. Mr. Mukesh Sharma was not allowed to speak and was requested to await his turn as the meeting was on First Come - First Served basis .......

Most of the new speakers were actually singing praises of DISCOMS, actually Tata DISCOM  ....... At around 12:20 pm the first serious speaker Mr. Ashok Bhasin got a chance to speak, a while later Mr. A.K. Datta a stalwart at DERC  Hearings got his turn ..... in the middle of Mr. Datta's PRESENTATION (mark my choice of words, a lot of research had been done) Mr. Mukesh Sharma started shouting slogans and amidst chaos and the Chairman called an early lunch break.

The serious speakers who had prepared hard and could value add to the debate were miffed at this Circus, me included .... I left the venue in disgust as this was the third futile Hearing that was deliberately hijacked.

In future DERC should ensure that only those serious Activists who file written petitions be called on a separate day so that a meaningful Public Hearing can be held .....

by all means call an open Public Hearing on a separate day where all those wanting to empty their spleen can perform whatever verbal acrobatics they want to indulge in can be allowed in full media glare.

Now you decide was it a Sham or not or was it stage-managed ..... :)

Warm Regards,

Rajiv Kakria