Monday, September 3, 2012

The Money Games That Power Companies Are Playing Unrestricted

In this guest column, Mr. B.S.Dalal, partner at Perry4Law, is sharing opinion regarding the recent spurt of incidences of over charging by power companies operating in Delhi. This is his personal opinion and not of this blog or its authors and administrator.

Delhi electricity regulatory commission (DERC) is one of the most pro active commissions operating in India. The news that DERC penalised Tata Power Delhi Distribution Ltd (TPDDL) for violations reaffirms the commitment of DERC. However, despite it being a pro active commission, power irregularities and aberrations are abundant in Delhi.

Residents of Delhi have been fighting the irregularities and misdeeds of various power suppliers. There is lot of hue and cry in Delhi in this regard. Surprisingly, Delhi government has not provided any assurance in this regard so far.

I myself received one electricity bill that does not make any sense. It is highly inflated and it seems to be violating all the norms and standards of common sense. After agitating the matter with DERC in an informal manner and TPDDL in a formal manner, I finally received an evasive reply from TPDDL today.

It is evident that they are not providing the correct facts and figures and the detailed supplied by them is not only self contradictory but also does not make any sense. As a vigilant citizen of India and resident of India, I did what we must do. I lodged a grievance and complaint with the Delhi’s Chief Minister’s office and other governmental officials and agencies and you must also do so.

We all know that corruption is a root cause for many problems in India. Now even Indian government acknowledges this fact and claims to be working in the direction of elimination of corruption in India.

However, the words does not match the deeds of Indian government in general and Delhi government in particular otherwise there would not have been the episodes that are currently happening in the power sector of India.

I hope my complaint would be entertained by the Delhi government and cognizance of the same would also be taken by the Central government. I would update all in this regard very soon.