Despite the Arvind Kejriwal Government trying its best to make available the social welfare services especially power subsidy and 20,000 litres of free water - to the masses, the greed of a handful of people has come in way of the schemes not really reaching a large number of people in parts of South and South-West Delhi where people face the brunt of “over-charged” electricity and water bills.
A large populace of working professionals and students living as tenants in these areas is being charged highly overcharged electricity rates by their landlords - defeating the very purpose of the much-publicised people-centric measure of the AAP dispensation.
“I’ve been staying alone in a rented apartment in Katwaria Sarai since 2007. Initially, I was being charged Rs 300/ month for electricity. Although I am using same electrical appliances, yet my expenditure on power has gone up in excess of Rs 1,000 per month. It has been done after installation of the sub-meter,” says Kamal, an electrical engineer, who recently quit his job in Gurugram to prepare for civil services exams.
Tenants in South Delhi areas like Munirka, Ber Sarai, Katwaria Sarai, Malviya Nagar, Sheikh Sarai and Jia Sarai among others have a common installation at their homes - the sub-meters.
Just as with the electricity, charges for water too lack any consistency or logic in these areas. landlords merrily charge for water as per their wishes, ranging between Rs 400 and Rs 500 per month, regardless of the quantity used.
Most of the tenants in these areas either live alone or in small groups of two’s and three’s and their average monthly electricity consumption ranges between 50 and 250 units/month, which falls in the first two slabs (50 per cent subsidy group) (See the table) of the power tariff chart.
Ideally, their power bills should range somewhere in between Rs100 and Rs500 after subsidy, but in reality, they are paying bills at almost four-fold higher rates of Rs 8, Rs 9 and Rs10/ unit, which form the highest slab in the tariff structure and even exceed it.
Simply put, despite being in the lowest power consumption bracket, they are paying the highest tariff: Courtesy sub-meters. The Kejriwal Government, almost 14 months ago, had decided to slash power tariff by half for people consuming electricity up to 400 units per month.
Another tenant from Ber Sarai area, Roshan, who is preparing for the Indian Engineering Services at one of the coaching institutes in Jia Sarai, told The Pioneer, “Earlier, I had two roommates to share my rents and expenses with, but post finishing my engineering degree, I chose to stay alone to concentrate on IES preparations. Funny thing is that I managed to reduce company, but my electricity bill remains the same. I fail to understand the logic. My landlord has only one sentence: live or find another apartment.” A group of students coming out of their institute in Jia Sarai had the same tale to share as Roshan.
There is a strong electricity sub-meter racket prevalent in these highly-populated areas, where students from all across the country come to prepare for various entrance examinations and better life, said sources.
With a number of colleges and vocational institutions around, a number of students from outside Delhi prefer to stay close to them. Working professionals too prefer these areas, both due to its proximity to their offices in the area as also for the convenience to shuffle between Delhi and Gurugram, which houses the headquarters of many MNCs.
A landlord in Munirka said sub-meters were installed to keep actual count of electricity consumption in each of the 24 flats in his 5-storey building, but could not explain the rationale behind the rates being charged. “We follow what is in practice,” he said curtly.
On charging tenants at Rs8/unit, another landlord from Sheikh Sarai justified it saying his overall power bill (since his building has a single authentic meter) exceeds the subsidised slabs. “My bill is charged at Rs8.10/unit. So I need to charge the tenants the same rates,” he said.
Sharing his water bills woes, 26-year-old Rahul, who tired of fat bills moved out of South Delhi, said, “I know that the Delhi Government has announced 20,000 litre of water free every month, yet I have to pay Rs 500/ month for water. The worst thing is that I live alone and don’t think I even use half of 20,000 litre water in a month. The Government should look into this.”
He also said most of his friends, who still live in South Delhi areas, continue to face the overcharged electricity and water bills. “I am sick of paying Rs 1,500-Rs 2,000 on electricity alone. I have a joint family in Varanasi with air conditioners and other equipments installed, yet we hardly face such bill situation there. If things won’t change I will probably shift to some other city,” said Imran Ahmed, a close friend of Rahul, over phone.
The subsidy on electricity consumption and 20,000 litre of free water every month have been the two most publicised decisions of the AAP Government, which won a whopping 67 out of 70 seats in the Assembly polls last year mainly riding over these two promises.