POWER ISSUE: Jan Morcha chief Raj Babbar along with allies protesting in New Delhi on Tuesday against the alleged failure of the Delhi Government to ensure proper power supply in the Capital. PHOTO: Sandeep Saxena

NEW DELHI: Workers of Jan Morcha, the Nationalist Congress Party and the Janata Dal (Secular) on Tuesday staged a dharna at Raj Ghat here to protest against alleged failure of the Delhi Government to improve the power situation in the Capital and to rein in the private power distribution companies (discoms) who were exploiting the consumers.

Jan Morcha national president Raj Babbar, NCP general secretary Tariq Anwar, Delhi Pradesh NCP president Ramvir Singh Bidhuri and JD (S) president and Deputy Speaker of the Delhi Assembly Shoaib Iqbal addressed the workers.

They demanded that the Delhi Government should cancel the licences of the private discoms and impose penalty on them for their utter failure to provide satisfactory service to the consumers.

The leaders alleged that despite being aware that the peak demand in the Capital during summer would touch nearly 3,800 MW, neither the Delhi Government nor the discoms made any prior arrangements to purchase extra power.

They accused the Government of hardly making any effort to establish new power plants in the Capital to make Delhi self-reliant in power.

This, the leaders said, was being done to allow the private companies to have a monopoly over the every power-related issue.

Dubbing the huge shortfall in power supply during this summer as the "darkest period" in the history of Delhi, the leaders pointed out that this was the first time that the consumers had to put up with three consecutive tariff increases in the past four years and yet bear power cuts for five to 10 hours at a stretch almost every day.

This did not happen even when the Delhi Vidyut Board existed and it was unfortunate that the Government, instead of taking the discoms to task, had thrown up its hands on the power issue, they said.

The speakers also criticised the discoms for not having enough maintenance staff. There were too many senior officials but not many people on the ground to attend to people's complaints and take the remedial action.

But while the discoms have been putting the consumers under huge financial stress by sending them inflated bills, the Delhi Government was turning a blind eye to the people's plight and was taking no action against the power companies.

There was not a single household in the Capital that had been left untouched by the inflated bills and fast running meters, the leaders alleged.

They further demanded that the 10 per cent power subsidy provided to the consumers last year should continue and no new burden should be imposed on them through a tariff increase.

The leaders warned that the current situation was highly untenable and the Government should take immediate steps to augment the power situation in the Capital.

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