Kejirwal’s Populism on Power Tarriff May Plunge Delhi into Darkness

In a rush to fulfill promises that are not only unreasonable but also not possible to implement, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal is changing stance with each passing day. First, he announced few days ago that all those consumers of Delhi who refused to pay electricity bills in 2012 at the behest of Kejriwal’s agitation against private power distribution companies- DISCOMS would get waivers on payment of dues running into several lakhs of rupees. The decision of the Aam Admi Party government was against all the ethics and norms of administration since such move would encourage more people to break laws and default on payment in future. What about those who paid their electricity bills honestly. If the Discoms were serving inflated bills and overcharging consumers, the least the government can do now is to inquire into the billing system and wait for the audit report.

After having realized his follies, Kejriwal now says tha no decision has been taken to waive the arrears of power consumers who had not paid their bills when Kejriwal as a political activist was agitating in Delhi. The chief minister says that the matter will be examined before any such decision is taken. It is likely that the previous government headed by Shiela Dixit might have favoured Discoms by allowing the companies to increase power tariff from Rs. 1.42 paise per unit in 2005 to Rs. 5.45 paise in 2013. There were serious allegations then against the Congress government of making a deal with the Discoms. Surprisingly Arvind Kejriwal is silent on this issue.

The Aam Admi Party government and its leaders are not talking now about serious charges of corruption against the Shiela Dixit government nor is there any mention of the CWG scams and its beneficiaries that included the previous government ministers and officials including the former chief minister.

During the electioneering in Delhi, Kejriwal had promised to bring down the power tariff by half if the AAP was voted to power. But look what it says. The AAP government in Delhi has put the upper limit of consumption only up to 400 units of power to avail the reduced rate. And the government now says that it would provide subsidies to distribute power at reduced rate to the low power consumers. People in Delhi including the service class that lives on their honest means expected relief from the AAP government on power tariff. But all consumers who consume more than 400 units would have to pay full charge and there is no hope of rates coming down. Already, Discoms have written to the Delhi Government asking for an immediate upward revision of power due to increase in the cost of power that the companies purchase from generating units including the NTPC.

Power distribution in Delhi was privatized in the year 2002. Discoms now claim that the cost of power per unit that they purchase for distribution has risen by 300% and there is deficit of Rs. 8000 crores that the companies would have to bear.

It is highly unlikely that the Kejriwal government would accept the demands of the Discoms which may lead to severe power crisis in the national capital plunging Delhi into darkness. Already power outages have increased in the capital as the people are experience long power cuts in this winter. Summer of 2014 will be more grueling with irregular power supply.

~R. K. Sinha