AAP taking revenge for MCD election loss by hiking water tariff, says BJP

Delhi BJP President Manoj Tiwari. (Express File Photo/Prem Nath Pandey)

As the Delhi BJP unit continued its attack on the AAP government over the increase in water and sewer tariff, it came out with a new reason for the Delhi government’s move: revenge for AAP’s loss in the MCD polls.

“Arvind Kejriwal is now taking revenge from the people of Delhi for his party’s defeat in municipal elections. By increasing water tariff, he is trying to break the back of middle and lower income families,” said Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari.

“During the MCD election campaign, Kejriwal had said that if his party lost then water and power tariffs will go up. Now, the CM is proving his threats were correct. Delhi BJP will force the Kejriwal government to withdraw the water tariff hike, file objections at the DERC against the hike in power tariff, and also launch a public agitation,” he said.

On December 26, the AAP government announced that water tariff will see “a marginal combined hike” by 20 per cent for those consuming over 20,000 litres/month. The government said the “practice of hiking water charges by 10 per cent every year” had not taken place since 2015. It also maintained that the decision was taken due to expenditure incurred in the implementation of the “7th Pay Commission and execution of projects”.