Stung by the severe public criticism over poor power supply in the city, Delhi Government has shot down a proposal from a private discom, BSES, to supply electricity in NDMC areas, including Lutyen's Zone.
A decision in this regard was taken at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit yesterday.
Sources told PTI that the Cabinet ministers rejected the proposal fearing that handing over power supply to BSES would risk the security in the highly vulnerable NDMC area housing vital installations such as Rashtrapati Bhavan.
They said the Cabinet was also of the view that since NDMC, a government agency had been efficiently providing electricity in the area, handing over the supply to any private firm would not be appropriate.
The issue came up before the Cabinet after the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Council (DERC) sent the BSES' proposal in this regard for its comment.
The BSES had sent a proposal to the DERC expressing its desire to allow it to supply electricity as it has been doing so in the other areas.
But the Cabinet outrightly rejected the proposal, the sources said, pointing that the NDMC was doing a good job and outages cannot be tolerated in the high security areas as was being witnessed in the MCD localities where the BSES currently supplies power.
In the past few days, Delhi Government has been facing flak over the acute power shortage in the city from the public even as it has been holding the BSES and and other private power discom NDPL responsible for purchasing power to meet the demand.
