The Hindu : New Delhi News : Wind up NDMC if it can't recover power dues of VIPs: High Court

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Dec 11, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Wind up NDMC if it can't recover power dues of VIPs: High Court

Staff Reporter

When power supply to MPs, Ministers is disconnected, phone calls start coming: Counsel

NEW DELHI: The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) is once again in the dock over poor recovery of dues running into crores against pending electricity bills from present and former Members of Parliament and Union Ministers.

The High Court had in December last year directed the NDMC to recover the dues amounting to Rs. 5.6 crores from the lawmakers. The direction had come on a public interest litigation (PIL) by Krush Bharti seeking directions to the Council, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited and India Tourism Development Corporation to recover the dues from the defaulting MPs and Ministers who have been avoiding clearing their bills for no valid reason.

The matter came up for further hearing this week before a Division Bench comprising Justice Vijender Jain and Justice Rekha Sharma, almost a year after last year's direction but the Council had virtually nothing to update the Court on.

Counsel for the civic body told the Bench that NDMC had so far been able to recover a paltry amount of Rs. 4 lakhs during the past one year. The Bench was furious after hearing from the counsel and suggested "to wind up NDMC when it cannot recover its money''. When the Bench sought to know the reasons for the slow recovery of the dues, counsel said that when NDMC disconnects power connections to the defaulters (MPs and Ministers), it immediately gets phone calls for their restoration.

The Bench then reacted angrily to the excuse and observed: "Why do you adopt different yardsticks for recovering your power dues; one for the consumer who is not a VIP and another who is a VIP?''

When counsel for NDMC admitted his client had not applied the same law to the common consumer and these defaulting MPs and Ministers, the Bench observed: "We must haul you (NDMC) up.'' "They (MPs and Ministers) can live without paying. Make a law.'' the Bench further observed.

"When a consumer who is not a VIP does not pay, you disconnect his or her power connection and even do not restore the connection to the subsequent occupant of the house unless the dues are paid. Why two different yardsticks for the consumer who is not a VIP and the one who is a VIP?'' the Bench remarked.

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