Vijay Goel kick starts Bijli Andolan in Delhi?

War against exploitation and monopoly of discoms?

By Pramod Kumar??

Extremely anguished over the sharp increase in power tariff, over 2000 Residents Welfare Associations (RWAs), members of voluntary organisations and traders associations started a Bijli Andolan in Delhi under the leadership of former Union Minister Shri Vijay Goel on November 27.

At jam-packed Talkatora Stadium, they warned the Congress government of Delhi to rollback the power hike of 22 per cent.

The RWAs have drafted a charter of 10 demands to place before the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC). The first major demand is of a CAG audit of power distribution companies’ accounts. The RWAs also put forth the demand of ‘one city one tariff’, because the NDMC supplies power at an average of Rs 1.8 per unit, but the private companies supply it at more than double the cost in MCD areas.

Shri Vijay Goel worked tirelessly for about three months to bring all the RWAs and NGOs together to fight collectively. Addressing the gathering of over 10,000 people at Talkatora Stadium Shri Goel said, “RWAs are the backbone of Bijli Andolan as they can spread awareness among the people how they are being duped by the power companies by declaring losses. The recent 22 per cent hike in the power tariff is just the beginning and Government has already started planning for another hike of 58 per cent. The Aandolan does not demand just the rollback of recent hike, its purpose is to gather momentum so that another hike is saved.”

Encouraged over the people’s response, Shri Goel announced that the next meeting would be organised at Ramlila Grounds to expose the unholy nexus between power distribution companies and the Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit.

The RWAs demanded a transparent power system in the city and questioned the basis on which the recent power tariff hike was decided. They also questioned the role of Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) as it does not have the cognizance or control over the accounts of the power companies. The absence of strict norms over these companies allows them to manipulate their accounts and present a balance-sheet running in loss.

Putting forth people’s demands Shri Goel said, “The movement demands that another power hike should be resisted till the Comptroller and Auditor General conducts an audit on the power companies, consumers should not bear the losses through power leakages or thefts, discoms should be penalised for power cuts and fast metre reading, fixed surcharges in power bills should be abolished, the monopoly of the private power companies should be discontinued and tenders should be floated for competitive pricing and the power companies should come out with a white paper on their nine-year long working, since power privatisation in Delhi.” Shri Goel said the next issue to be taken up is of water.

Shri Anil Sood, president of Chetna and a member of State Advisory Committee of DERC, informed the gathering that the DERC does not even know the distribution cost of one megawatt power. If this is the condition, the genuineness of the orders passed by the DERC raises serious doubt about the credibility of the Commission itself.

Shri DS Vohra, chairman of East Delhi Federation of RWAs, demanded audit of discoms by CAG and till then the increased tariff should not be enforced. Shri SK Sharma, chairman of Federation of RWAs of Rohini said the profit on account of reduction of losses by discoms should be passed on to the consumers.

Former state BJP president Prof Omprakash Kohli said the indiscriminate increase of power tariff has been completely ignored by the Government of Delhi for the reasons best known to it and now the citizens of the city would not tolerate such a blatant daylight robbery. Constitutional expert Dr Subhash Kashyap and tax guru Shri Subhash Lakhotia also endorsed the public sentiments and expressed their solidarity and support to the cause.