Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday blamed Reliance-Infra backed BSES for rampant power outages.
He also reminded the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC), a quasi-judicial body, to act on the Delhi government’s proposal of penalising discoms for unscheduled power cuts.
Pulling up the BSES discoms, Mr Kejriwal made it clear that they can't keep blaming “local faults” for the widespread blackouts afflicting the Capital. “I am receiving complaints through the night. Many areas in Delhi are facing power cuts. I have been closely monitoring the issue for the last two days. BSES areas are having more power cuts. Areas where power is supplied by Tata Power are having less snags,” he said.
Talking about a proposal which his government had sent to DERC in June, he said: “We have directed the DERC that if any area has unscheduled power cuts and it is not rectified in two hours then people of that area has to be compensated. This policy will be implemented soon so that their accountability is fixed.” A DERC official told The Hindu that the commission is “seriously working on the proposal”. “But it is going to take time as the discoms have said that they would have to upgrade their entire network into a smart-grid system which is a costly affair,” said a senior official.
Power Minister Satyender Jain took strong note of the long power cuts and directed the discoms to take urgent measures to ensure round the clock power supply. He said that the scenario is expected to improve within a day or two. “Outages stand at 0.19 per cent but even that is not acceptable,” he added.
