Kejriwal to discuss penalty for outages with L-G

You may soon be paid for unscheduled power cuts at your home if lieutenant governor Anil Baijal approves the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government’s proposal to penalise distribution companies.

On Wednesday, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal is going to discuss the matter with Baijal.

Last year, the AAP government had implemented its decision to penalise discoms for unscheduled power cuts. However, this was later struck down by the Delhi High Court as the L-G’s prior approval had not been sought.

“The CM will discuss this matter with the L-G tomorrow (Wednesday) to clear any doubts he may have. He has also directed power department officials to prepare the proposal again and send it to the L-G today itself,” deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said.

According to the compensation policy on power outages that was struck down by the high court, a penalty of ₹50 per hour per consumer was to be levied for the first two hours followed by ₹100 for every subsequent hour.

The fine amount was proposed to be adjusted in the consumers’ monthly bills. With many parts of the city facing power cuts in the summer heat, the CM took a review meeting on Tuesday with the power minister, chief secretary and officials of the power department after which he issued a series of directives.

Kejriwal ordered authorities to submit a report to him on outages every day and also increase the capacity of discoms’ call centres for satisfactory disposal of people’s complaints.

In his direction to the chief secretary, Kejriwal said power distribution companies should send messages to consumers in affected areas if they resort to unscheduled power cuts.

Sisodia said the chief secretary will ensure that discoms list the scheduled power cuts on their websites so that people can know about it in advance.

He said that it is the responsibility of all three discoms — Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited (TPDDL), BSES Rajdhani and BSES Yamuna — to provide power to Delhiites 24x7.

He added that the government is fully prepared to meet even a demand of 7,500 MW. “In some areas, transformers had tripped due to excessive heat and high demand,” Sisodia said.

He said that Kejriwal directed that hoardings be put up across the city with helpline numbers of the three discoms.