With the NTPC’s February 11 deadline of snapping power supply inching closer, the Reliance owned BSES power discoms on Thursday wrote to the Delhi Government seeking immediate dispersal of its subsidy dues or make a direct payment to the power genco against its outstanding amount. Besides, it has also written a letter to the Commissioner of South Delhi Municipal Corporation to clear its pending dues on account of street lights.
Alerting the Government of a possible 100 per cent loadshedding in the city in case the dues are left unpaid to NTPC, the BSES said, “We, therefore, once again request the Government for immediate release of the subsidy amount due to BSES discoms in the immediate interest of avoiding massive load shedding in several parts of the city and consequential impact on 33 lakh consumers.” While it requested the Government to urgently release pending subsidy of Rs 262 crore, it also suggested that the Government may also make a direct payment of Rs 95 crore to the NTPC due to BYPl while disbursing the balance amount to BSES discoms to meet the immediate need. “We have been regularly pursuing the matter with the Commissioner, SDMC with regard to release of the same. These dues are pending since 2011,” said an official.
At a time when summers are yet to come, prolonged power outages have become a routine affair. Scores of residents complained that the duration has increased during the current month which may be an indirect reflection of the ongoing tussle between the cash-strapped power discoms and the Government. Several areas across the Capital are reeling under continuous power outages to the tune of seven hours.
In East Delhi areas like Mayur Vihar Phase I, II and III, laxmi Nagar, Dilshad Garden, Karkarduma, Krishna Nagar, Nand Nagri and Yamuna Vihar were worst affected. While West and South West Delhi almost all areas suffered blackouts, some of the worst affected ones include Dwarka, Palam, Punjabi Bagh, Janakpuri, Mundka, Vasant Kunj and Jaffarpur. Upscale North Delhi areas like Civil lines and Model Town too were forced to live in the dark for as long as five hours.
“They call it scheduled power cuts, but I think it is just a pretext. The discoms have already begun to cut power supply. Both the Government and the discoms are just busy threatening each other while no practical and immediate solution is being taken,” said SV Sharma, president, Shakarpur RWA.