With prolonged power cuts over the last one week reminiscing the decade-old power crisis in the city, Delhi’s lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung on Thursday directed the DERC to ‘bail out’ the two Reliance-owned discoms and avoid an impending power blackout.
Seeking assurance from the power regulator of not letting the situation go out of hand, Jung clearly stated that power supply to consumers should not be jeopardised at any cost. Meanwhile, in a bid to ease the ongoing deadlock, the BSES has written to the Government to release its subsidy dues immediately so as to clear its outstanding amount to be paid to NTPC.
The direction of the l-G comes at a time when several households across the city have already begun to face outages for as long as seven hours. The worst affected areas fall in East, West and Central Delhi which include Mayur Vihar Phase I, II and III, laxmi Nagar,
Chandni Chowk, Paharganj, Karkarduma, Karawal Nagar and Dwarka. With reports of power outages, the l-G in a meeting with DERC officials, asked the power regulator to ensure uninterrupted power supply to the consumers. Sources said Jung gave a stern message to the regulatory body that no compromise would be accepted in case the residents are made to suffer due to power cuts.
“The l-G expressed his concern over the power situation in the city. He said excuse will be accepted only if the people have to suffer power cuts owing to the non-payment of dues by the discoms or the Government. The issue must be resolved at the earliest,” said a source, quoting Jung. The DERC apprised Jung about the hearing it held for BSES Rajdhani and Yamuna Power limited to take stalk of their financial condition.
After hearing the entire case, Jung directed the DERC to take up the matter with utmost urgency and assist the discoms in arranging loans so that the BRPl and BYPl can submit their letter of credits (lCs) amounting to Rs 367.68 crore. Earlier in the day, the BRPl and BYPl met the DERC, wherein they sought more time to file their reply/comments against the Government’s letter of ensuring continuous power supply or face suspension of licences.
The two discoms blamed the Government and the DERC saying while the former has not yet cleared the subsidy dues, the latter prepared non-reflective tariffs. “The Government has not given us subsidy dues which under the Electricity Act should be disbursed before it is implemented. Secondly, it cannot merge those dues with our other outstanding amounts,” said a discom official. The next hearing before the power regulator is on Saturday.