Questioning claims of the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) being an autonomous body, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday said the decision on withdrawing the power tariff hike in less than 24 hours was to suit the BJP’s political interest.
The party, which had earlier opposed the hike, had planned to launch a city-wide protest, but the withdrawal brought a shift in the stance.
Talking to journalists here, party leader Yogendra Yadav congratulated the people of Delhi and said that the “re-think” was based on electoral calculations.
He said by announcing the tariffs in the name of surcharge on coal, the BJP was trying to hike the tariffs through the back door and was testing waters. Mr. Yadav said that it was because of the pressure exerted by the people and the AAP that a rollback was considered.
“The whole episode goes on to show that the DERC works on the instructions of the government of the day. Now that the BJP is in power, it is pushing the agenda of big power producers, one which suits private interests of a few rather than the people in general. If at all it was important to hike the prices, what changed now?” he asked.
According to the AAP leader, afraid of attracting public anger ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections, the BJP-led Centre forced the rollback of an absurd announcement.
“This U-turn has proved that it allowed its autonomy to be trampled by the BJP’s Central government and the unresponsive Delhi administration,” said Mr. Yadav.
The AAP also reminded how it had reduced the power tariffs during its 49-day rule and promised to do if voted to power again.
The party appealed to the people to continue opposing “unjustified” tariff hikes and promised to fast-track the audit of discoms.
The party also said that it has been in touch with experts on power sector as well as retired bureaucrats whose inputs have pointed to the existence of corruption at every level in the distribution companies or discoms.
It promised that under their Delhi Dialogues initiative, which kicks off on Saturday, the AAP would come up with a blueprint on the sector and how it proposes to rationalise the rates the consumers in the Capital are made to pay.
