Delhi govt slams discoms, warns of strict action

The Delhi government slammed power discoms on Sunday as “profit-hungry entities” as the national Capital continued to face long power cuts in the biting cold. HT reports.

The Delhi government slammed power discoms on Sunday as “profit-hungry entities” as the national Capital continued to face long power cuts in the biting cold.

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Though the power demand — the usual excuse given to explain load shedding during summer — is as low as 3,500 MW against the peak summer demand of 6,000 MW, disruptions were reported from across the city.

Areas such as Mayur Vihar, Bindapur, Mohan Garden, Najafgarh and large parts of Dwarka, Palam and Bawana witnessed hours-long power cuts.

“Power goes out late in the night and comes back only in the morning, making life all the more difficult in this chilling weather. But for the government’s decision to shut schools till January 13, we would not have been able to ready children in time,” said a resident of Mohan Garden.

“It’s quite common to have a blackout at night. We have cuts during the day as well,” said Mukesh Kumar, a resident of Mayur Vihar phase I.

The government on Sunday tore into the discoms’ argument that since power stations were not getting enough coal supply in the wake of fog delaying goods trains, power generation has been hit.

In a statement issued on Sunday, the government said strictest possible action would be taken against the power utilities if the situation did not improve.

Mukesh Sharma, parliamentary secretary to Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit, told the Hindustan Times, “They (the discoms) are selling power to other states. If they actually don’t have enough power, they must buy it from states such as Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.”

“Even in the summer, we didn’t allow major power cuts. When the grid failed last year we sourced power from outside. Delhi cannot go without power,” he said.