NEW DELHI: The United Residents' Joint Action (URJA) group has convened a convention of all residents' welfare associations across the Capital this coming Saturday to collectively decide on the measures to be taken to step up the agitation against the Delhi Government for its failure to address the issues of fast running meters, inflated bills and the poor power situation in the city over the past many months.

It is likely that the issue of water privatisation and handing over of Delhi Jal Board assets to multinational companies will also come up for discussion at the convention that is likely to seek a vote from the RWAs for the next phase of agitation against the Congress Government in Delhi.

The convention would also seek a vote for measures to be taken to challenge the Government on the issue of privatisation of the erstwhile Delhi Vidyut Board that has resulted in a chaotic power situation in the city including abnormal tariff increases on one hand and poor service and deficiency in power availability on the other.

According to URJA convenor Promod Chawla, what has compounded the power crisis is the fact that almost half of Delhi's residents have been subjected to a forced meter change while the other half remains under the electro-mechanical regime, creating a severe imbalance between the ones whose meters have been changed and those whose have not. He said URJA would decide on steps that need to be taken to get at the truth about DVB privatisation which is commonly thought to be fraught with serious corrupt practices resulting in huge profits to chosen companies apart from suspicions of pay-offs to several political and administrative functionaries.

Mr. Chawla said the convention would determine what the people of Delhi want to be done with regard to the power situation. ``Our feedback shows that there has been no tangible improvement in the situation and people continue to be harassed by high power tariffs and inflated bills that have no relationship with real consumption,'' he added.

Reacting to the suggestion that the rollback had alleviated people's problems, D.M. Narang of the Rajendra Nagar RWA said: ``The 10 per cent rollback was never implemented. People were suffering even before the tariff hike was announced.''

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