‘Residents are not willing to bear any more burden’ : The Hindu

A report from our Special Correspondent:

The East Delhi RWAs Joint Front has criticised the power tariff hike stating that the residents were not willing to bear any more burden based on the whims and fancies of the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission.

In a statement, the Front’s office-bearer B.S.Vohra said while the power tariff in Delhi has gone up by 8.32 per cent to 9.52 per cent, the DERC has claimed that it has provided relief by scrapping the power purchase cost adjustment (PPAC) charges. “It clearly means that the PPAC being charged till date was totally unjustified or this time they have raised the power tariff and sooner or later they will re-impose the PPAC. Moreover, the imposition of another slab of over 1,200 units at the rate of Rs 8.75 per unit is also absolutely unjustified.”

General Secretary of United Residents of Delhi which is an umbrella body of a group of RWAs accused the regulator of acting at the behest of private power distribution companies. The RWAs termed the hike as “arbitrary and illogical” alleging it was “based on fudged accounts of these power companies”.

“There is enough evidence on record to suggest that the discoms have siphoned off huge amounts by fudging their account books. On the basis of the evidence available in public domain, a CAG audit of all the three discoms of Delhi was ordered,” said Mr. Gandhi. 

“The CAG has been complaining that the discoms have not been cooperating with the auditors and have so far refused to make their account books available to them. Instead of forcing the distribution companies to comply with auditing norms, the DERC has come to their rescue by announcing this undue hike,” he alleged. Rajiv Kakria of GK-I RWA slammed the DERC for hiking the tariff. “The decision to increase tariff is completely unjustified,” he said.

Varinder Arora, Convenor of the Delhi Residents Forum, said “The various reasons like inflation cited by DERC for increasing tariff have no relevance as these companies are not selling onions or tomatoes. We demand immediate roll back of power tariff.”

with thanks : The Hindu : LINK