Congress MlAs and scores of party workers on Monday gheraoed Delhi Chief Secretary SK Srivastava at his office demanding immediate improvement in supply of power and water in the national Capital.
The Congress workers, led by DPCC chief Arvinder Singh lovely, accused the Delhi Government of ‘total failure’ in providing electricity to the people and said the issue is being handled in an ‘insensitive’ manner. “The Delhi Government has failed miserably in supplying power and water to the people in the sweltering heat. The Congress will step up the agitation if the situation does not improve. There was round-the-clock electricity supply when we were in power,” said Delhi Congress spokesperson Mukesh Sharma.
“The Chief Secretary told us that he cannot do much in these two issues and asked us to approach the Central Government. Thereafter, we are not letting him go from the room,” Sharma said. “We will not allow the Chief Secretary to go out till he doesn’t give us written assurance on these two issues,” he said. large part of Delhi continued to face long outages as the power transmission network, damaged by the devastating storm on May 30, is yet to be restored fully. Snapping power supply to shopping malls after 10 pm and switching off street lights during peak hours were some of the urgent measures ordered on Sunday by the lt Governor as temporary steps to deal with the situation.
Sharma also attacked the NDA Government, saying as Delhi was under President’s rule. “It is responsibility of the Centre to address issues relating to the city,” he said. “Over one crore people of Delhi have been facing water and electricity scarcity these days, but nothing is being done by either the l-G or the central government. Are these good days as promised by the BJP. The Congress was also joined by the Aam Aadmi Party which held the BJP-led Government in Centre for the power crisis. “The failure of the Central Government and the Delhi administration in checking endless power cuts across the city indicates towards a multiple failure. The Union Power Ministry and the city administration have failed to address the real issue of ensuring adequate electricity supply across the city,” the party alleged.