NEW DELHI: Demanding a complete review of privatisation of power in the Capital, the Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Assembly, Jagdish Mukhi, on Tuesday said it was unfortunate that even after almost four years of privatisation of the distribution network in the city lakhs of consumers continue to suffer.

In a statement, Mr. Mukhi accused the private power distribution companies of indulging in foul play with the consumers in connivance with the Delhi Government. He said even though summer was yet to peak, the private power companies had started indulging in unscheduled power cuts and load shedding throughout the Capital.

What was most unfortunate was that there was no advance information on when and where load shedding would take place. "Already there is a shortage of 250 MW to 400 MW during the peak load period and it is expected to cross 500 MW in the coming days."

What is even worse is that even after prolonged power cuts the discoms were claiming improvement in the power situation. "As if this was not enough, the issue of fast running meters continues to trouble the consumers and now again these companies have provided false data to the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) for hiking power tariffs in the Capital."

Charging the discoms with failure to lay adequate infrastructure during the past four years to ensure proper and effective distribution of power in the Capital, Mr. Mukhi said: "if these companies get adequate electricity supply even than they will not be able to fulfil the demand as they have failed to evolve a proper system for distribution of power".

"These companies," he said, "were showing fraudulent losses by adopting frivolous methods whereas the factual situation was that they are making huge profits."

The senior BJP leader accused the Delhi Government of being involved in a huge financial scam in the privatisation of power. This contention has been supported by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, the Standing Committee on Energy of the Lok Sabha and the Public Accounts Committee of the Delhi Vidhan Sabha headed by senior Congress MLA, S.C. Vats. The Central Vigilance Commission has also taken a very serious view on this issue and was getting it probed.

Mr. Mukhi urged Lieutenant-Governor B.L. Joshi to impress upon the Central Vigilance Commission to issue its report at the earliest and also order a review of the entire privatisation process in Delhi.

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