While briefing about concentrated efforts being made by the Government to ensure uninterrupted round-the-clock power supply in the Capital, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Friday said electricity bill is bound to go up if electricity is consumed for 24-hours. She cautioned the citizens of Delhi not to fall prey to people who are propagating against “inflated” power bills.
“People will try to instigate you by saying that these bills are inflated. But I would say one cannot compare bills for 24 hour power supply to that of eight hours supply,” Dikshit said. She was speaking during the inauguration of a road project in Ballimaran area.
Present on the occasion were Union Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal, PWD Minister Raj Kumar Chauhan and Power Minister and local MlA Haroon Yusuf.
Rejecting criticism of increase in tariff, the Chief Minister said that her Government has ensured round-the-clock power supply in the city which earlier would witness eight to nine-hour- long power cuts. “There are a lot of youths (present) here who don't even know that there used to be eight to nine-hour-long power outages in Delhi. We had decided to fix the problem and we have succeeded in it by ensuring 24 hour power availability to people of Delhi,” Dikshit said.
“Nobody today can say that we don't get electricity. There may be short duration outages due to local faults but overall there is 24-hour power availability in the capital. You can feel that and it has been acknowledged,” she added. Making light of Delhi BJP president Vijay Goel's announcement that tariff will be cut by 30 per cent if BJP comes to power, Dikshit said supply of electricity to streetlights in North Delhi was snapped earlier this week due to non-payment of dues by the BJP-ruled municipal corporation.
“Another thing which I would like to say is that BJP have initiated a movement over this (power tariff) and the Delhi BJP president even said that power tariff will be cut by 30 per cent if his party comes to power. See what could be the situation. Due to non-payment of dues to the tune of around Rs 43-45 crore, the power supply to streetlights were snapped,” the CM also said.
Appreciating Dikshit, Union Minister Kapil Sibal said, “She knows how to govern, how to serve people and how to generate funds without burdening any section of the society. She has scored thumping victory three times consecutively and it is sure that she will return to power fourth time. People across the world talk of development taken place in Delhi but this is not visible to a political party in Delhi as it is keeping eyes closed all the times.”