The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government on Wednesday extended the subsidy of Rs 2 per unit for domestic power consumers consuming up to 400 units per month and special subsidy to lawyers using chambers within the premises of the court complexes across Delhi for the financial year 2018-19.
A decision to this effect was taken after a Cabinet meeting chaired by the Chief Minister Arvind Kejirwal. “The Cabinet approved the Department of Power's proposal for extension of subsidy for electricity consumers consuming up to 400 units per month at a flat rate of Rs 2 per unit,” said an official release issued by the city Government.
In addition to this, the Cabinet also approved a subsidy of Rs 100 per month per consumer on fixed electricity charges for domestic consumers consuming up to 100 units per month. The budgetary allocation for electricity subsidy for the financial year 2018-19 is Rs 1,830 crore.
In yet another move that will benefit lawyers, the Delhi Cabinet also approved the special subsidy for lawyers using chambers within the premises of premises of court complexes. This means that lawyers' subsidy will be the same as for domestic consumers and they will now be treated as domestic consumers. Incidentally, earlier lawyers were being charged on commercial rates for their chambers electricity bills.
“The Cabinet decision will benefit around 41 lakh domestic electricity consumers of Delhi and their monthly savings will increase. The budgetary allocation for electricity subsidy for the financial year 2018-19 is Rs 1,830 crore,” Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said after the Cabinet decision.
According to the official release, “DISCOMs continue to owe a cumulative amount of Rs 8,000 crore to the Delhi Government owned DTl and IPGCl-PPCl, therefore the subsidy amount will be credited to these Government-owned utilities”.
The Cabinet also asked the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) to conduct a special audit of subsidy amount through an external auditor to ensure its actual passage to the consumers.
In yet another decision, the city Government approved restructuring of State Educational Research & Training (SCERT) and District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs).
Notably, SCERT Delhi is led by a Director and Joint Director and has a sanctioned capacity of 44 academic faculty posts and 101 non-academic posts. After restructuring, SCERT Delhi will be led by Director (Academic) and Joint Director (Administration).
“SCERT will have a total of 12 administrative divisions with a total of 103 academic faculty, five post-doctoral fellows and 191 non-academic staff. This includes a BEd division catering to intake capacity of 200 students a year,” as mentioned in the Delhi Government's official record.
However, DIET, the other institute is catering to the needs of 11 revenue districts. Therefore, the Department of Education (DoE) proposed creation of two new DIETs for the districts of Shahdara and North-East Delhi (these districts were created in 2012).
The Department also proposed to upgrade the existing RK Puram DIET into a full-fledged DIET.