Power distribution company BSES Rajdhani Power Limited has lodged a complaint with the Power Grid Corporation of India that “regulation of 300 MW of power supply to BRPL was resorted to against total outstanding dues of only Rs.2.5 crore’’ on February 28.
The discom has stated that it “pains us to note that other State utilities with far higher dues and poorer payment record have not been subjected to such a drastic measure as regulation of power supply but BRPL has apparently been singled out, being a private utility’’.
The letter, sent by BRPL Chief Executive Officer Gopal K. Saxena to PGCIL CMD R.N. Nayak on Monday, has raised the larger issue of equal treatment of Delhi’s discoms with other State utilities, on the lines of the concerns raised on their behalf by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit recently, who had also urged the Centre to treat them at par when it comes to providing financial aid.
The BSES letter has also noted that the discom had made all attempts to avoid such a situation and had resolved the issues on February 27 by reaching an agreement with wherein ongoing regulation was to be lifted on BRPL making a payment of Rs.3 crore to agreed dues.
However, the discom claimed that despite its complying with all the terms of the agreement, PGCIL continued with the unwarranted and unjustified regulation of the order of 300 MW.
Stating that it was ``extremely disturbing that assurances at such a senior level are not honoured and now an attempt is being made to obfuscate the issues and justify the unwarranted regulation when in fact there is no case for such an act,’’ the BRPL has urged PGCIL to review its stand in view of the interest of all the power consumers in South and West Delhi to which the discom supplies power.
The discom sources said Delhi consumers were being deliberately discriminated against without any reason.
It said PGCIL had regulated 300 MW of power to BRPL from February 26 and this amounted to nearly 25 per cent of BRPL power being regulated for dues of not even Rs.3 crore.
“In contrast, the total outstanding of over 90 days of PGCIL in North India as on date was around Rs 437 crore,’’ said a discom official, adding that “there are utilities in States, which have dues, which are significantly higher than that of Delhi and these include Uttar Pradesh at Rs.243 crore and Himachal Pradesh at Rs.34 crore.’’
