Even as power consumption in the Capital continued to peak, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday warned discoms get their act together in what his political opponents decried as words which were “abusive” and “unbecoming” of a political figure.
Mr. Kejriwal made the comments, which gave both the BJP and the Congress fodder to launch their latest verbal onslaught against him, in response to questions on long power outages after the inauguration of an eight-lane flyover in North-West Delhi.
“Such outages should, in the first place, not happen at all because there is no lack of supply...In any case we have taken a policy decision on the issue and it will be discussed with the DERC which is the main agency with which responsibility lies,” he said.
Mr. Kejriwal then went to explain that the Delhi government had issued policy directions to the DERC to the effect that unscheduled power cuts have be fixed within two hours; if not, he further said, then residents of the area suffering long outages must be compensated.
Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhyay accused the government of allowing under-purchasing of power and threatened to take to the streets if power cuts didn't “end by Sunday”. “The Chief Minister should stop the drama of his government’s strictness on private partners in discoms. He should use his stick on government officials on discom boards and his Power Minister who have all connived with private companies that are short-purchasing power and resorting to power cuts,” he alleged.
Former CM Sheila Dikshit termed Mr. Kejriwal’s comment “unbecoming of a Chief Minister.” Mr. Kejriwal is scheduled to preside over a meeting with the DERC over the issue of power outages on Tuesday, said an official.
