NEW DELHI: Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party president Harsh Vardhan on Thursday said he had written to the Chief Justice of India, Justice Y.K. Sabharwal, requesting him to set up special fast track courts for disposal of cases relating to power, water and corruption so that they might be settled within 60 days.

Noting that through this move people would be able to get justice speedily and their trust in law would be reinforced, he said a provision should also be made that appeals against these cases could only be made to the Supreme Court. This, he said, had become essential as power and water are two of the most essential things in any person's life.

Addressing a press conference at the Delhi BJP headquarters, Dr. Vardhan said he had mentioned in the letter that during its movement against the alleged loot of consumers by the private power companies, over 10-lakh power consumers had voluntarily signed the protest papers as they were not satisfied with the power companies or the Government.

Electronic meters

Stating that at the time of installing the electronic meters the private power companies had not informed the consumers that these meters would record reading of both the neutral and direct phase separately and the reading which would be higher would be the basis of the bill, he said the meters were also installed despite no such proposal being put before the Board.

Now, Dr Vardhan said, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit was clarifying that she had only asked for replacing the meters of only consumers drawing 10 kW power or more. He demanded to know how then were lakhs of meters installed in houses where the consumers were mostly drawing between 1 kW and 5 kW. Also, he said, in order to cover up the acts of the power companies, the Power Minister and Chief Minister were now blaming the public and stating that the wiring in the houses was defective.

Declaring that BJP would not remain silent against the Rs. 12,500-crore bungling, Dr. Vardhan demanded that the Delhi Government take cognisance of the violation of the conditions by the power, cancel the previous agreement and enter into a fresh agreement with the power companies. And he asserted that the companies should be compelled to prevent power theft in place of increasing the power tariff so that the honest consumers are not overburdened.

Dr. Vardhan has also sought a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the accounts of the power companies, who he alleged were now preparing a fictitious draft of the Annual Revenue Requirements for the financial year 2006-07 so that the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission might grant them a fourth power tariff hike.

Petitions

He also said Ms Dikshit should have asked the Delhi High Court to hear all the petitions related to power pending there on a day-to-day basis so that they could be decided in shortest possible time for else the power companies would continue to benefit at the expense of the consumers till the final order is delivered.

Meanwhile, the Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Assembly, Jagdish Mukhi, who has as an immediate solution to the impending chaos, demanded that the mechanical meters be reinstalled so that the consumers do not have to pay for electricity that they have not consumed.

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