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Power consumers seek Manmohan's intervention

Staff Reporter

Take back power distribution, recall all electronic meters, say RWAs in the petition

NEW DELHI: The ongoing confrontation between the Delhi Government and the various Residents' Welfare Associations, citizens' groups, women's groups and NGOs took a new turn on Saturday with a protest rally by power consumers demanding total recall of all electronic meters installed so far. They also called for taking back control of power distribution from the private companies and a CBI inquiry into the privatisation of the sector and the subsequent actions of the Government and the discoms.

The rally also came down heavily on the functioning of the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) and demanded that its working be audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) and the discoms brought under the Right to Information Act.

In a petition to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the RWAs urged the Union Government to appoint a committee to carry out an appraisal of power privatisation in Delhi and said until a solution was found to the present mess, the Government should take back control of the discoms and hand over the power distribution to one of the Government `navratna' companies, NTPC.

The protesters, who had gathered at the Safdarjung Club and then marched towards the Safdarjung Enclave office of BSES Rajdhani, were critical of the Sheila Dikshit Government for having turned a blind eye to the problems of the consumers and favouring the discoms. According to Delhi RWAs Joint Front secretary Pankaj Aggarwal, the rally demanded that the consumers be given the option to choose between the new electronic meters or the ISI marked electro-mechanical metres. The discoms should take the responsibility of detecting and removing the so-called defects of wiring, neutral, earthing and leakage that have cropped up after the electronic meters were installed.

Demanding total recall of the electronic meters installed till date, Mr.Aggarwal said nearly 10 lakh meters had been changed forcibly by giving an impression that it was mandatory. "These consumers are suffering from inflated bills and steps should be taken to refund money to these consumers and their old meters should be reinstated."

"In cases of inflated or disputed bills, the average of six months or one years consumption prior to the fixation of the new meter should form the basis of settlement and future billing. The electricity tariff should be decided on the basis of cost of procurement plus reasonable distribution cost. At present the average cost of procurement is approximately Rs.1.93 per unit and the average selling rate per unit is Rs.4.50, which is too high. The selling price should not exceed Rs.2.60 per unit," said participants in the rally.

The petition further states that contracts for repair and procurement of capital goods and services were being given to associated parties at very high rates resulting in siphoning off of huge funds. It was also important to bring measurement of electricity metres under the Weights and Measures Department, something that was being avoided by the Delhi Government. It was resolved to carry on with the agitation till action was taken to address the issues raised by RWA, citizen groups and NGOs.

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