No way Delhi will go powerless: Chief Minister

NEW DELHI,17/05/2013: Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit during a function to recieve the Polio Eradication Champion Award by Rotary International in New Deli on 17, May, 2013. Photo: Meeta Ahlawat

For the Delhi Government, power privatisation has been a success story but Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit still sees room for improvement in the city’s power sector.

On Wednesday, she said her government is determined to not allow the power distribution companies to slacken.

“There is no way that we will allow the city to go powerless. The companies have been cautioned and told in no uncertain terms that they will have to better their service,” she told

The Hindu on the sidelines of a media interaction.

‘Will not tolerate’

“We will not tolerate companies switching off power to save money or increase their own profits. As on date, we don’t get complaints from the Tata’s (that run the TPDDL), but BSES (that has two subsidiaries, BYPL and BRPL) have to make more efforts. We are conscious of the consumer complaints and are working towards implementation of the open access where consumers can choose their distributor, and also studying how we can implement ‘time-of-day metering’,” she said.

Ms. Dikshit also said her office has already forwarded complaints about power irregularities submitted by the Aam Aadmi Party to the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission.

Inequitable supply of water and the ongoing tussle between Haryana and Delhi is a cause for concern, the Chief Minister admitted.

‘No denial’

“No one can deny that there is a problem. Delhi’s population is increasing by 5 lakh a year from those who come to stay and 10 lakh from those who come to work. We have mooted a plan on the lines of Mumbai where we can collect water in a pond which can be shared between Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh in proportion to their land and drinking needs,” she said.

Social responsibility

As for the stand-off between Haryana and Delhi over the sharing of 80 MGD of water through the Munak Canal, Ms. Dikshit said, the issue will now be heard by a Group of Ministers.

She expressed concern over the depleting ground water levels and the water mafia that has wrested control of tankers used to supply water to areas that are dry.

“We need to have social responsibility to check such concerns, governments can do only so much, the rest has to be done by the community,” she said.