Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has taken cognisance of the power cut woes in the city asking the power distribution companies to compensate consumers over unscheduled power cuts. On Tuesday, Chief Minster Arvind Kejriwal asked Chief Secretary MM Kutty to place the order before lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, only after whose approval the Delhi people could take the benefit from the power companies.
On Tuesday, the CM has asked a report from the three power DISCOMS every morning at 11 am over the issues reported from people across the national Capital. He has also directed the power companies to send an SMS to consumers before a week for scheduled power cut and an explanation for any unscheduled power cuts.
“If there are scheduled power cuts are still there, the detail must be uploaded on the website. A week before the plan of any schedule power cuts must be informed people through SMS. Even unscheduled power cut details must also be sent to people through SMS,” Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said in a press conference while underlining about the CM’s instructions.
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 lG’s prior approval had not been sought. In his written direction to the Chief Secretary, Kejriwal said, “The file of compensation to be paid to every consumer by discoms for power cuts of more than two hours to be placed before the lG today itself for approval.”
According to the compensation policy on power outages that was struck down by the high court, a penalty of Rs 50 per hour per consumer was to be levied for the first two hours followed by Rs 100 for every subsequent hour. The fine amount would be adjusted in the consumers' monthly bills. The policy stated that if any consumer approached the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) after 90 days with a complaint that he or she had not received his compensation, DERC would have to order and ensure payment to all consumers affected by that power cut.