The Hindu : New Delhi News : Dwarka residents up in arms

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Monday, Jun 19, 2006

New Delhi

New Delhi

Dwarka residents up in arms

Staff Reporter

To pay only 50 p.c. of power bills in protest against clubbing of theft subsidies with tariff

NEW DELHI: Dwarka Vikas Manch (DVM), a non-government organisation working among 300 societies in Dwarka, on Sunday passed a resolution to join the People's Action-United Residents' Joint Association campaign and pay only 50 per cent of their electricity bills from the next cycle as a protest against the clubbing of theft subsidies in the power tariff.

At a meeting attended by representatives of various RWAs of the area, DVM president D.C. Upadhyay said: "We are unwilling to accept that a theft in one corner of Delhi will be subsidised by residents of Dwarka, which mostly comprises cooperative group housing societies with little scope for such types of theft. This is neither an industrial area nor a jhuggi jhonpri cluster. Why should we have to pay for the theft of others?"

The president of Sector 7, Pocket 2, RWA in Dwarka B.N. Pal lashed out at the Delhi Government for the continuing hardships of the people on the power front. The shortfall in electricity was a direct result of mismanagement of the sector by the Government. "Power outages are a result of abnormal demands made on the grid due to uncontrolled theft. This is an area of responsibility of the Government not the residents of Dwarka, and we cannot be made to pay for the crimes of another."

People's Action president Sanjay Kaul reminded members that it was inconceivable that the distribution company did not now where theft occurs. "It can be conclusively proved that theft cannot take place without the active or passive collusion of discom officials. They own the lines, they own the poles, the transformers, even the meters in our houses. They have powers to enter homes, raid premises and yet they are not able to control theft. Clearly, there is a vested interest in keeping things status quo. Is it that they recover vast monies in cash for allowing such theft? " he asked.

URJA convenor Promod Chawla distributed copies of the Power Secretary's document that states that innocent and honest bill payers were being subjected to higher power tariffs since the last three years to make up for the loses incurred by the discoms on theft. "In effect, this Government has conceded that they are protecting private discoms at the expense of the honest power consumer."

The DVM general secretary J.P. Srivastava moved a resolution extending full support to the agitation and pay only 50 per cent of their next bills as a protest against this policy of the Government.

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