The Hindu : New Delhi News : Power Minister admits BSES was late in starting work

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Thursday, Dec 27, 2007
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New Delhi

Power Minister admits BSES was late in starting work

Staff Reporter

The Minister says the discom is slow on starting up-gradation of the system
‘At present the availability of power in Delhi was more than the demand’

NEW DELHI: Power Minister A. K. Walia told the Delhi Assembly on Wednesday that the number of complaints pertaining to power were the maximum in areas served by the power distribution company BSES as it “started working late” on various factors.

The Minister said the discom was slow on starting up-gradation of the system. “While they should have ideally started system up-gradation five years ago, they were late. We have now told them to reduce the power cuts,” he said.

The Minister was responding to allegations by Opposition BJP MLAs that while power supply was being cut regularly in a number of areas that had been termed theft-prone, it was being sold to other states at Rs.6.50 per unit as against the cost of Rs.3.50 per unit at which Delhi Transco was supplying the same to the discoms.

BJP MLA Harsharan Singh Balli also raised the issue of power cuts being resorted to during the water supply hours of 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. and this adding to the woes of the populace.

In reply to a written question by Congress MLA Surender Kumar, the Minister had informed that at present the availability of power in Delhi was more than the demand.

On the issue of power cuts, he said in the theft-prone areas power cuts were being resorted to by the discoms during peak hours. This was being done to protect the transformers and other costly equipment from damage.

In reply to another question by Badarpur MLA Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, Dr. Walia said the Delhi Government had granted a subsidy of Re.1 per unit to all those domestic consumers whose monthly consumption of power in the months of February, March, April, September, October and November was less than 150 units and in the remaining six months was less than 200 units.

The Minister said this subsidy scheme would be valid for one year from the next tariff order of the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission.

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