New Delhi
The Delhi government has extended till August 15 the scheme to regularise illegal water connections, after receiving only around 2,500 applications until March 31, senior officials aware of the matter said.
A senior government official, requesting not to be named, said the scheme has received very poor response from public and people have been largely reluctant to come forward despite reducing the penalty to a token amount of ₹1,000.
“Fewer than 2,500 people have applied under the scheme for regularisation of their connections. It is negligible amount. We will study various factors which are leading to such poor response. There may be issues pertaining to ownership of the house or old bills. We will try to bring more people in the fold of legal connections,” the official said.
The Unauthorized Connection Regularization Scheme was announced by the government on October 14, 2025.
According to the Delhi Economic Survey (2025-26), the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) has around 2.9 million connections, comprising 2.81 million active domestic connections and 840,000 commercial connections. Its sale of water was 403.03 million gallons per day (mgd), indicating an estimated 50-52% non-revenue water component due to leakages and thefts through illegal connections.
Under the regularisation scheme, the token penalty is only ₹1,000, reduced from a penalty of ₹25,000, while for non-domestic connections, the charge was reduced from ₹61,000 to ₹5,000. The scheme was launched alongside the late payment surcharge (LPSC) waiver scheme.
Previously, the Delhi government expressed concern about the low number of unauthorised connections in purview, with fewer than 3 million water connections, in comparison to over 7.3 million electricity connections.
A second official said that some of the commercial establishments, shops may rely on canned water and one house may have multiple power connections. “Even if we discount these factors, the actual number of water connections should be much higher. Millions of connections are still missing,” the official said.
As per the economic survey, the Delhi Jal Board has streamlined its system for obtaining water meters for metering of unmetered supply of water. “The existing system of supply of water meter along with sanction of water connection has been amended and now consumers can purchase water meters of approved specifications from the open market. The consumers having Delhi Jal Board’s defective meters have been allowed to get the defective meter replaced with private water meter and have been given option either to get the refund of meter security or get the same adjusted towards water charges in future,” the report reads.