RWAs want discoms to be brought under RTI

New Delhi, Sept 19 (PTI) The resident welfare associations in the capital want the power distribution companies (discoms) to be brought under the RTI and their accounts be audited by the CAG.In a letter to the Delhi Chief Minister and the Chairman of Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC), People's Action -- a body of RWAs -- has also demanded review of the objections filed by consumers with the DERC during the public hearing and reopening of the PAC report submitted in the last term of this government.The group, in a letter to Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, said, "The discoms have enjoyed unprecedented and illegal protection from public scrutiny by being kept outside the ambit of RTI since inception." Calling it a travesty, the body said Delhi government, being a 49 per cent stakeholder, should pressurise its partner discoms to immediately withdraw their plea in the court which had stayed bringing them under RTI.The advocacy group held a mahapanchayat of RWAs at the Jantar Mantar on Saturday during which People's Action Founder and chairperson URJA Sanjay Kaul listed four demands.In the separate letter to DERC Chairman, the RWAs said that the CAG should audit of the accounts of the discoms before any hike.On the point of the CAG audit, they noted that DERC has shown some willingness to accept the demand after the High Court has issued it notices."As is inbuilt into the nature of accounting practises, a tariff hike can only be effected after the audit is completed and not before and request the DERC to find means and methods of holding the order in abeyance until then," the letter said.The body said that since the public hearing was a necessary ingredient in the tariff fixation process, the objections of the consumers had to be acted upon and not merely heard and dispensed with.They said that the DERC would be failing in its duty if "it didn't immediately constitute a committee to view the objections so filed and if these were not discussed threadbare with representatives from the RWA body."People's Action has formed a committee made up of experts, techno-legal experts and RWA members to enter into discussions with the DERC on this point," they said.

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