The Delhi government’s proposal to compensate consumers for unscheduled power cuts is likely to be similar to the one okayed by it in 2015 and implemented in the summer of 2016, before being struck down by the Delhi High Court on grounds of not having been cleared by the Raj Niwas.
Government sources, describing the new policy as “a matter of urgency”, said “minimal changes, if any” were expected to be made to the proposal before being presented to Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal in the coming days.
Mr. Baijal on Wednesday had directed the government to “devise a rational and enforceable model” of penalising discoms for power outages.
“It is a matter of urgency. Discussions with stakeholders on proposed modifications to the old policy will be worked out in the coming days, following which the government intends to send the proposal to the L-G for approval,” said a senior government official, adding that the same would then, procedurally, be sent to Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) for notification.
2007 rules in force
According to the 2015 proposal, a penalty of ₹50 per hour per consumer was to be levied for the first two hours, followed by ₹100 for every subsequent hour. The final amount of fine was to be adjusted in the consumers’ monthly electricity bill.
Current rules dealing with supply and performance standards of power distribution, in the absence of the proposed policy, date back to 2007 and propose penalties between ₹50 and ₹200 for each day, instead of each hour of power failure.
“There is certainly a need to modify the new policy for the latest culture of outages, which now occur for hours and not for days like they used to a decade ago, something that the policy implemented last year took into account. It appears that the same policy, which is comprehensive in many respects, will be settled on,” said another official.
Opposition’s demands
Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Vijender Gupta demanded that the Delhi government immediately set up a system for effective implementation of various compensation provisions as and when these came into effect.
“The system must clearly delineate compensation rules and regulations, call centre numbers, etc. It must be effective enough to deter unscheduled power cuts by discoms,” Mr. Gupta said.
The BJP leader demanded the constitution of an Electricity Default Compensation Cell with a retired judge of the High Court as its chairperson.
“The Cell should include power experts and representatives of consumer organisations. It should be equipped with a dedicated telephone number for complaints,” he said.
