Date:23/11/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/11/23/stories/2005112310150400.htm

New Delhi

Free power, water for Chief Minister, Ministers

Sujay Mehdudia

Other beneficiaries include Speaker, Deputy Speaker of Delhi Assembly and Leader of Opposition

NEW DELHI: While the common man has been left to fend for himself and forced to shell out extra money to pay for massive increases in water and power charges, the Delhi Government has quietly insulated the Chief Minister, her Cabinet colleagues and the MLAs against these hikes. Apart from the increase in salaries, the elected representatives have almost ensured themselves free electricity and water.

At a time when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has voiced serious concern over the free electricity offers made by various elected governments and Congress president Sonia Gandhi has advised restraint in expenditure to the Congress-ruled State Governments, the Delhi Government is charting out a totally different course. Not only has it ensured a fat salary packet for the elected representatives; it has also given the Chief Minister and her Cabinet colleagues the benefits of free power.

The other beneficiaries of this largesse include the Speaker, the Deputy Speaker of the Delhi Assembly and the Leader of the Opposition.

According to political observers here, the finer details of the salary hike package reveal very interesting facts indicating a total violation of the directives of the Congress president and insensitivity to the sufferings of the common man. Quietly tucked away in the package is the provision for giving 5,000 units of free power every month to the Chief Minister and 3,000 units of free power to the Ministers.

Interestingly, the Chief Minister's Office was busy ringing up newspapers offices to sway public opinion by stating that there was hardly any hike in Ms. Dikshit's salary and she had in fact turned down a proposal for the same. "This hike is not as per the status of the Chief Minister and she has only settled for a minor increase," the official remarked.

In the present scenario, the Chief Minister is entitled to reimbursement of Rs. 5,000 worth of power bills and the Ministers to a Rs. 3,000 waiver. But very discreetly the Cabinet has changed the rupees to power units. If the 5,000 units of power are calculated at Rs. 4 per unit, this would be a whopping Rs. 20,000 allowance for power bills every month and that for the Ministers would be Rs. 12,000 per month. This is in sharp contrast to the assertion by the Chief Minister to the consumers of the Capital during the power crises to pay up the increased tariffs of power and water or face disconnection.

There are murmurs of protests already in the party over the manner in which the hike has been announced. "The Delhi Government has been disobeying the high command directives time and again. This happened in the case of power, then privatisation of water and now on the issue of austerity. There is a mood of confrontation within the Delhi Government as they feel that they are above everybody in their second innings in power," remarked a senior Congress leader.