BJP protests power bills, AAP says petty politics

Senior party leaders and MPs protested in different parts of Delhi as part of its ‘Bijli Jan Andolan’.

The Bharatiya Janata party’s Delhi unit on Friday launched demonstrations in the capital against the Aam Aadmi Party government over “inflated” electricity bills, prompting the ruling party to accuse it of indulging in petty politics.

Adesh Gupta, president Delhi BJP (C) along with Member of Parliament, Meenakshi Lekhi (3R) sit in a protest against the electricity distribution companies (Discoms) and Delhi government, outside Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission office (DERC), in Malviya Nagar, New Delhi. (Sanchit Khanna/HT PHOTO)

Senior party leaders and MPs protested in different parts of Delhi as part of its ‘Bijli Jan Andolan’. Accusing the state government of colluding with discoms, they said they would not allow electricity connections of consumers to be disconnected over unpaid bills.

Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta and senior party leaders and MPs, including Meenakshi Lekhi, held a demonstration at the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) headquarters. Other leaders held a similar protest in 70 assembly constituencies. Demanding relief for people, the BJP submitted a memorandum to the DERC chairman about the problems faced by people.

AAP spokesperson and MLA from Greater Kailash, Saurabh Bharadwaj, said BJP leaders were living up to their reputation of indulging in petty politics when the city has come together to fight Corona under the “Delhi Model”.

“As for the issue of electricity bills for commercial establishments in lockdown period, the Delhi government stands with traders and businesses of Delhi. We have already ensured a three-month moratorium on payment of fixed charges without any penalty so that businesses get time to recover from the impact of lockdown. We ensured that the annual review of sanctioned load is deferred and we have also ensured provisional electricity bills that show energy consumption as NIL until manual reading of metering is resumed. What has the BJP done for the traders of Delhi in this lockdown period?” Bharadwaj said.

Training his guns at the BJP, which rules all three municipal corporations, Bharadwaj said, “The Delhi government has singularly focused on ensuring adequate health care facilities are in place to fight corona, while BJP refuses to even pay salaries of doctors and nurses in MCD hospitals. This shows how much they care for the people of Delhi.”

Targeting chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, who had in 2013 criticised the then Congress government over high electricity bills, Gupta said, “He used to protest against the Sheila Dikshit government for high electricity bills. But today when he is in power in Delhi, he is letting the discoms send exorbitantly high bills by imposing surcharges such as power purchase charge, pension surcharge, fixed charge, etc. These are being sent to commercial establishments that were closed during lockdown.”

“Even domestic consumers are being sent bills without subsidy,” Gupta said.

A few resident and traders’ associations joined the protest.

The principal opposition party in the Delhi assembly alleged the AAP-led Delhi government had allowed discoms to send disconnection notices to people.

Leader of the opposition Ramvir Singh Bidhuri said AAP had promised it would recover Rs8,000 crore from the power companies and use it for Delhi’s development. “But to date, not even eight paisa have been recovered. Instead, the government and power companies are collectively charging arbitrary electricity bills,” Bidhuri said.

Demanding an immediate waiver of fixed charges, Bidhuri said, “Other state governments provided relief to residents in electricity bills but the Kejriwal government is adding to people’s problems. Fixed charges should be waived.”