Derailed: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. The government has asked the Delhi Jal Board to stall the water ATM project

Ever since it came to power in the Capital, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has been hogging the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Days after it faced criticism for its failure to prevent a farmer from committing suicide at a rally, the party now seems all set to lose a major chuck of its loyal vote bank.

The AAP government’s unrelenting tussle with private power distribution companies has put the installation of 100 water ATMs in the Capital in jeopardy. The AAP-led Delhi government has put on hold the installation of water ATMs in unauthorised colonies in the Capital by Tata Power, which supplies electricity to the North, North West and outer Delhi areas.

The Tata-owned TPDDL had taken up the project of installing 100 water ATMs in JJ clusters and unauthorised colonies under corporate social responsibility (CSR) scheme.

Official sources said the government has directed the Delhi Jal Board to put on hold the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the private discom and the water utility.

They said the government is ‘averse’ to the idea of having ties with a company against which it has ordered an audit by the CAG.

The move, however, will derail the project, which Tata Power said, was for a social cause. The water ATMs with reverse osmosis (RO) systems were being installed in areas where the DJB has so far failed to provide water connection. “The government has asked the Delhi Jal Board to stall the project. These water ATMs would have provided the residents in unauthorised colonies with clean drinking water at minimal cost. The work was on. Tata Power was set to install 10 water units by April-end,” an official said.

However, the decision would hit the slum dwellers and residents of unauthorised colonies that formed a major vote bank of AAP in the successive Assembly polls in Delhi, enabling it to clinch a landslide victory in polls.

The Delhi government has put on hold the installation of water ATMs in unauthorised colonies

With the project getting stalled, around 10 lakh people will be affected. More than 40 lakh people are estimated to be living in unauthorised colonies and JJ clusters in Delhi that constitute nearly 30 per cent of Delhi’s total votes.

A TPDDL official said on the condition of anonymity that the projects under CSR had nothing to do with company’s stake in Delhi’s power sector. “The project (water ATM) was for a social cause. The government’s move is unfortunate. We were set to install the system very soon,” said an official. TPDDL had fixed an estimated budget of Rs 5 crore on the installation of 100 water ATMs.

Notably, the project was part of DJB’s plans to extend its ‘Water ATM’ initiative across the city, with installation of 500 water ATMs in a phased manner. A MoU was signed in January this year between the then DJB CEO Vijay Kumar and Tata Power-DDL CEO Praveer Sinha in the presence of Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung and senior officials of the Delhi government.

As part of the MoU, 100 ROs with water dispensing units were to be set up — 10 plants to be installed by March 2015, followed by 45 each in 2016 and 2017. While the DJB was responsible for providing raw water, the capital and operation & maintenance (O&M) costs was to be borne by Tata Power.

Yogendra Yadav at a recent Swaraj Samvad meeting

Setback to AAP in Maharashtra

In a massive jolt to the Maharashtra unit of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), five members of the 13- member Thane party committee put in their papers on Monday, declaring their support to Swaraj Samwad Abhiyan launched by rebel leaders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan.

Akshay Bothale, former district secretary of the party, had resigned soon after Yadav was voted out of the AAP national executive on March 28.

The members, who put in their papers on Monday, sent their resignation via email to state and national committee office bearers. Also, the party’s Thane district convener Vikrant Karnik has given up his party responsibilities along with other leaders Hemant Sharma, Subroto Bhattacharya, Sameer Pradhan and Ramesh Verma. Apart from Bothale, others have not relinquished their pri mary membership of the party.

Karnik and others have claimed that they are upset about the way senior party leaders, including Yadav and Bushan, were treated by the AAP brass. “All party office bearers of Thane city unit have condemned and expressed their disappointment over the recent developments in the party over the past few months. They had conveyed the same to AAP’s state office bearers. However, they have not received any response from them,” the resignation letter sent by the leaders stated.

Digital: The Delhi government is planning to create an information superhighway

As many as 70 AAP leaders and volunteers had met on Sunday for Swaraj Samwad. Sources said it was decided that office bearers would resign first and those who would not agree with the new changes in the party might tender their resignation en masse as primary party members.

Capital to get 1,000 Wi-Fi hotspots by 2016

With an aim to make the Capital a digital city and bridge the digital divide, the Delhi government is planning to install 1,000 operational Wi-Fi hotspots by early next year under the first phase of implementation of its project to provide free Wi-Fi across the city.

“The IT department of Delhi government envisions the rollout of 1,000 Wi-Fi hotspots around the time of completion of first year of AAP-led Delhi government early next year with further scaling of coverage every year. As a next step, government will ensure mesh coverage across the city,” an official said.

The government is also considering installing Wi-Fi in 5,000 DTC buses and laying a common fiber infrastructure network across the city. The dec sion comes after Delhi Government’s IT department in association with the Delhi Dialogue Commission’s Wi-Fi Task Force conducted a three-day consultation with various system integrators, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), hardware and software providers as well as ISPs and Telecom operators.