The Residents' Welfare Association representatives on Thursday rapped the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission for imposing "unabated" hike in power tariff on Delhiites and accused the Sheila Dikshit government of colluding with power distribution companies. "These hikes reflect the indifferent attitude of the power managers in the national capital, who collude with the power distribution companies to cheat the people of Delhi. The Congress government of NCT has been complicit in this fraud on the common man," an RWA representative said.
RWAs expressed displeasure over the DERC's decision on the housing societies, which will have to pay more for using common facilities run on electrical supplies. "Owing to the criminal apathy of DERC, discoms and Delhi government, the residents of the housing societies with independent connections for common facilities will be charged at Rs 7 per unit of electricity. This is the highest rate for the domestic category under new power tariff regime," a member said.
Facilities such as elevators, common rooms, community halls, lighting for staircases, and streetlights would be billed at the rate of Rs 7 per unit. Till July, the families living in housing societies were paying Rs 6.50 per unit for the common facilities. "The DERC, the power distribution companies and the Delhi government under Sheila Dikshit have evolved an institution of corruption in the power supply system of Delhi," an RWA representative said.
They accused discoms of fleecing consumers at will by installing fast running electric metres ably helped by DERC which fixes power tariff that suits them. "To make matter worse, the Delhi government, instead of putting an end to this corrupt nexus, has only emboldened the discoms by granting them bailout packages of hundreds of crores of rupees," they claimed. The RWAs have also extended their support to the August 11 'Bijli Andolan' rally at Ramlila Grounds against corruption in power sector in Delhi and high power tariffs.
The Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission had recently hiked the tariff for domestic consumers by five per cent, heeding to the demands of the distribution companies. The power tariff in the city was hiked by 22 per cent in 2011 followed by five per cent hike in February 2012. The tariff was again hiked by up to two per cent in May 2012 and again by 26 per cent for domestic consumers in July 2012. The tariff was hiked by up to three per cent in February.
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