A large number of residents of South Delhi participated in a foot march against inflated power bills on Wednesday and demanded an immediate reduction in the tariff.
The protest was organised in the form of a “Bijli Morcha” by Delhi BJP spokesman Vijay Jolly and the participants walked nearly 15 kilometres from Sangam Vihar Deoli Bandh Road to Delhi Electricity Regularity Commission (DERC) office at Malviya Nagar.
Mr. Jolly said it was unfortunate that Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has repeatedly justified the inflated power bills by stating that the cost of power and the purchasing power in the hands of the citizens has gone up.
He charged that though Ms. Dikshit had asked the Power Department to immediately resolve the issue of inflated bills, the residents were yet to benefit from the announcement.
Later, Mr. Jolly led a delegation and met DERC Chairman Mr. P.D. Sudhakar, Member Secretary Jayshree Raghuraman, Director (Engineering) Anjuli Chandra, Members Shyam Wadhera and J.P. Singh and presented them with some “inflated” power bills for the months of July and September.
The delegation claimed that the domestic consumers, especially those from economically weaker families, had been hurt the most and charged that the hike in power tariff allowed by DERC on June 27 this year has allowed a free run to the discoms to fleece the common man.
It also claimed that the benefits of nearly Rs.3,500 crore per annum through the nearly 35 per cent reduction in transmission and distribution losses achieved since privatisation have not been passed on to the consumers by the discoms.
Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly V. K. Malhotra has urged all the party legislators to launch a massive public agitation in their respective constituencies against the hike in power tariff.
Prof. Malhotra said all residents welfare associations have also been urged to join the public agitation against the frequent increase in electricity charges.
