The Hindu : New Delhi News : BJP against increase in power tariffs

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BJP against increase in power tariffs

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: Delhi BJP president Harsh Vardhan on Saturday asked Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit not to give her consent to the proposal of the Capital’s power distribution companies for an increase in power tariffs.

In a statement, Dr. Vardhan said that on the other hand if the power distribution companies resort to load-shedding then the provision of penalty should be invoked against them with immediate effect.

Alleging that all three power discoms were continuously resorting to undeclared load-shedding in almost all the areas of the Capital, the BJP leader said the state of affairs in Sadar Bazar was the worst with power cuts lasting about six hours every day.

He said the traders of Sadar Bazar had now warned the Government that if uninterrupted power supply was not restored in the next 48 hours they would “adopt the path of struggle”.

Dr. Vardhan claimed that even though the city’s current demand for power was about 3,000 MW, the distribution companies were failing to meet the requirement. “The discoms are making a profit by selling power from Delhi’s share to States like Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, while the city itself was facing power cuts,” he added.

“These companies are selling power to other States at the rate of Rs.7 per unit whereas they have to sell it to Delhi at the rate of Rs.3 per unit. They are earning Rs.4 per unit by selling it to the other States. And that is why load-shedding is being resorted to in Delhi from five to six hours,” Dr. Vardhan said.

Referring to the discoms’ demand for an increase of 65 per cent in power tariffs, Dr. Vardhan said: “It has clearly been mentioned in the terms and conditions of privatisation that after five years of privatisation the discoms will purchase and supply power to Delhi and instead of increasing rates they will decrease the power tariff and keep the supply of power uninterrupted. But even six and a half years after privatisation, the discoms have become addicted to government subsidy.”

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