ROSHAN SETH: Not to pay new charges

NEW DELHI: Even as the Committee for Campaign Against Power Tariff Hike (CAPTH) rejected Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit's assertion blaming the Capital's private power companies for the power mess in the city, noted film actor and theatre personality Roshan Seth said on Thursday that he had never seen a Government that was so deaf, so blind and so dumb when it came to the suffering of the people.

Mr. Seth, who has publicly declared that he will not pay the 10 per cent hike in power charges effected recently, said the Government had lost touch with reality and was forcing the agenda of a few people down the throats of the middle class people with a vengeance. The CAPTH also lashed out at Ms. Dikshit for trying to wriggle out of the responsibility for the poor power situation in the Capital by blaming the private discoms.

Interestingly, this group of intellectuals, human rights activists and residents' welfare associations felt that since the Chief Minister had publicly admitted that terror tactics were employed by the agencies, the RWAs and individuals have a right to file an FIR against the Government and its agencies with the demand for compensation. "The act of forcibly changing meters either through intimidation or through sleight or during the absence of the male members of the family from the house are all criminal acts with a defined set of procedural actions in law," said Promod Chawla, Convenor of the Committee for CAPTH. Such residents must be provided compensation for the harassment, invasion of privacy, unauthorised entry and access, misrepresentation and cheating by the Delhi Government and the discoms," he added.

In another first, two consumers, Anant Trivedi and Kamal Sharma, have developed a 20-minute presentation on the reasons and consequences of the privatisation of the power sector. They felt there was an understanding between the Delhi Government and certain private players that whatever the public opinion, the interests of the private companies were to be protected.

Ravinder Singh of Citizens Action Forum said it had been decided to send the contents of the presentation to all Councillors and MLAs in Delhi to educate them about the Government's bungling on the issue.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail