Low turnout at Delhi Jal Board billing camps

NEW DELHI: The first day of Delhi Jal Board’s camps on bill-related grievances saw an extremely low turnout. The public notice announcing the dates and locations of these camps, organized at 30 places across the city, was released on Saturday morning, hours before they were to be held and no time and, in some cases, addresses were given.
Kailash Katyal, president of the federation of RWAs in Mayur Vihar Phase I, said that though one camp was organized at the Pocket I RWA office, residents got to know of the venue by chance on the previous evening.“If it was not for the public notice, we would have never known that our office was the venue for Mayur Vihar Phase I. Secondly, the notice came out on Saturday morning and barely anyone was aware of these camps. We had to call up people. Even then only about 12 people came,” said Katyal.
A resident of Malviya Nagar also complained that DJB had not specified the location of their camp or of several others in south Delhi. “We presumed that they would be at the zonal revenue offices but they were being held elsewhere. It was chaotic,” said A Bhatia, a resident.
The zonal officers were equally hassled, having being informed about the camps only on May 16, and with their numbers published in the notice, their phones kept ringing through the morning. “Most of our officials are also here and, hence, there is nobody at the main office because of which others are having problems. However, things would be better organized for the subsequent ones,” said an official.
Senior officials also said that if there were such large-scale complaints about the first set of camps, these would be organized again.
Taking advantage of the first-of-its-kind interaction with DJB, residents turned up with all sorts of complaints, including those of meter installation, change in names and addresses and fast-running meters. At Mayur Vihar, some complaints were attended to immediately. Other complaints, DJB officials said, would be tackled by Monday.