Giving vent to the anger, disappointment and frustration of the common people over yet another hike in power tariffs and the complete sell out of people’s interests to DISCOMS by the Delhi government, the Delhi BJP today launched a massive agitation all across the city with the Delhi BJP President Sh. Vijay Goel leading a protest Torch & Candle March from party’s nation office 11 Ashoka Road to Delhi CM’s residence.
Despite holding a peaceful Torch & Candle march, the party cadres led by Sh. Vijay Goel were lathi charged and water cannons were used against them by the police personnel. As the BJP leaders and party cadres tried to proceed further and reach near CM’s residence, Sh. Goel and other party leaders with hundreds of party cadres were arrested and taken to Tughlaq Road Police Station.
Next on the party list is Power Minister Haroon Yusuf at whose residence the party will soon organise protest against raised power tariffs
With the latest hike in power tariff, over the last two years, there has been a 72% increase in power tariff in Delhi. And it is likely to continue to increase unabated. The BJP’s stand is that instead of increasing the power tariff, it can be reduced by 30%. The party has promised to do this when it comes to power in Delhi.
As Sh. Goel was leading the protest march over the unabated power tariff hike, similar demonstrations, protest marches, chakka jam etc were held across the city at 80 places where thousands of BJP workers gathered. Those who participated in it included among others-Sh. Tanweer Ahmed, Sh. Lal Bihari Tiwari, Gopal Narain Singh, Trivindra Rawat, Vijay Sonkar Shastri, JK Jain, Kiran Ghai, Suyapratap Sahi, Anil Jain, Ashok Pradhan, Anil Sinha, Nirmala Sitaraman and Rameshwar Chaurasia.
Addressing a huge gathering party cadres on this issue, Sh. Goel said, “The Congress government and the DERC have become stooges of the DISCOMS. The DERC and Delhi government are getting ready to dole out Rs 19,505 crore as outstanding regulatory assets(claims by the private DISCOMS which will be charged from the common people through hike in power tariff.) This would translate into a hike in power tariff of more than 300%.
The Congress government has just postponed this hike till assembly polls to contain backlash from common people. But it has officially accepted this suggested 300% hike and this will be implemented immediately after assembly polls.
A 300% hike means that the lowest cost of the per unit power will not be less than Rs 12 to 13. This would be unbearable for most of the city residents but as power is a basic necessity in this city now, so this nexus of DERC,DISCOMS and Delhi govt. is blackmailing the common people by raising power tariffs randomly.
Sh. Goel said that the BJP strongly opposes the way Delhi government has given a free run to the DISCOMS. The outstanding balance on regulator assets that will be claimed from consumers by the DISCOOMS through hike in power tariffs will be based on the figures provided by DISCOMS. No cross verification has been done by the DERC. Why there is no independent verification of these figures which are clearly fudged to benefit the DISCOMS?
When DERC did not have data from DISCOMS from 2007-2012, how did it provisionally approve these regulatory assets through statutory advise?
Sh. Goel informed that the agitation will continue over the next two and a half weeks and will culminate with a massive “Bijli Rally” on 11 August at Ramlila Grounds
