Hours after tariff rates were revised, Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) working presidents -- Haroon Yusuf, Devender Yadav and Rajesh Lilothia - on Wednesday termed the reduction in power tariff as an admission by the Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal led government that it had looted the people of Delhi in past one-and-half years.
"The reduction in the power tariff announced by the Arvind Kejriwal government should be with retrospective effect when the fixed charges were increased by six times last year. The very fact that the Kejriwal Government has reduced the fixed charges tariff is proof enough that it had admitted looting the people of Delhi in the past one and a half years by hiking the fixed charges," they were quoted as saying.
In a statement, the three working presidents of DPCC demanded a "total rollback of the fixed charges instead of doing a piecemeal job by the Aam Aadmi Party Government as an election stunt with an eye on the upcoming Assembly elections in Delhi to fool the people of Delhi after looting them in the name of fixed charges and pension fund for the past one and a half years."
The working presidents of the DPCC alleged that AAP government had put an unnecessary burden on the citizens of Delhi by increasing the fixed charges and surcharge in power bills to benefit the private DISCOMS.
They also demanded that the hiked power charges should be rolled back and the crores of rupees collected on this head should either be returned to the electricity consumers or adjusted in the power bills for the next six months.
In their statement, they claimed that a Congress delegation, led by the late DPCC president Sheila Dikshit, had met Kejriwal at his residence on June 8 this year and submitted a memorandum, demanding that the power companies, who have collected Rs 7401 crore from the people on fixed charges and pension fund, should either adjust the money against the bills or returned it to the people.
"The fixed charges were hiked six times more and pension funds at the rated of 3.8 per cent were collected by the power distribution companies though according to the agreement with the DISCOMS, it was the responsibility of the power companies to contributed to the pension funds," they said.
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The three working presidents of the DPCC also stressed that "nominal reduction in tariff" announced by the AAP government will only benefit a miniscule section of power consumers.
Earlier in the day, DERC announced revised power tariff for the fiscal year 2019-20.
"Upto 2 kW, from Rs 125 per month per kW..it has been reduced to Rs 20 per month. From 2kW to 5 kW, earlier it was Rs 140...it has been reduced to Rs 50 per month. From 5 kW to 15 kW, it was Rs 175 which has been reduced to Rs 100," DERC chairman Justice SS Chauhan announced.