The Hindu : New Delhi News : BJP ups the ante on ‘grim’ power situation

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Thursday, Apr 03, 2008
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New Delhi

BJP ups the ante on ‘grim’ power situation

Staff Reporter

Overall power scenario has improved after privatisation, asserts Minister
‘Losses, theft have come down whereas distribution has improved’

NEW DELHI: In the face of severe criticism from the Opposition on the issue of power distribution, supply and billing, Power Minister A.K. Walia on Wednesday defended his Government saying “it does not support any company and has repeatedly warned them”. Dr. Walia said action would also be taken against the discoms wherever found necessary.

Speaking at the end of a short duration discussion initiated by Delhi BJP president Harsh Vardhan on the “continuing grim power situation”, Dr. Walia said the fact of the matter was that Delhi had faced its worst time in terms of power supply during the BJP rule in 1993 to 1998. With privatisation, which the Opposition has vehemently criticised, he said the power situation has indeed improved.

“The Aggregate Technical and Commercial losses have come down from 52 per cent to 32 per and the target is to bring them down to 17 per cent by 2010. Also, the distribution of power has improved in general through replacement of equipment such as transformers and 29 lakh mechanical meters with electronic meters,” he said.

Pointing out that power theft has come down to a just 26 per cent now, the Minister said this was also reflected in the balance sheets of the discoms of whom two – NDPL and BRPL – are making profits while only BYPL was still running in losses. He said the Delhi Government had recently also waived the old bills worth Rs. 2,500 crore that were recoverable by the discoms to enable all people to get new connections. “And the money which used to go to Delhi Vidyut Board earlier, is now being spent on development of the power sector,” he said.

Initiating the discussion, Dr. Vardhan had demanded that the Government get a special audit of Annual Revenue Report (ARR) of power companies done to expose their hidden dealings. He said even though the power tariff had been increased four times and the discoms were also getting crores of rupees in subsidy, yet they were installing inferior electronic meters to cheat people through inflated bills. Moreover, he said, these companies have been showing losses by showing huge inflated expenditure on equipment purchased from their sister concerns. At the time of privatisation too, he said, these companies were benefited to the extent of Rs. 12,500 crore by the Government.

He said while these companies have made huge financial gains due to the Government patronisation, they were not bothered about the welfare of the people and at a time when power cuts were rampant across Delhi, the discoms were selling electricity to Andhra Pradesh and other States at the rate of Rs. 8 per unit by violating the pact.

Charging that these discoms have been showing deficits in their ARR through misappropriation of accounts and by conniving with the Government as well as with Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission, Dr. Vardhan said a special audit of ARR of these companies was essential as they were not above law.

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