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Delhi is no desirable haven to hanker after | |
| Sunil Dang and DANFES | |
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Yes, Delhi is dying. The only way to save it is that citizens i.e. you and I should stand up for it, focus on its woes, understand the root causes of all these problems and find a remedy for it. Making the government, politicians, the bureaucrats and civic bodies including private power companies accountable would be another good step. The people have the power, if necessary, to dislodge the unconcerned government and install a better one at the time of elections. From this issue, the DayAfter,
which shall be entering its 1st year of publication in July, starts a
special section to champion the cause of the Delhiites and help in
bringing back the past glory of great City of India. The section will
bring you Delhi’s reports, Delhi’s concerns expressed by NGO’s and
citizens. As a reader, you can also be part of the initiatives by
sending your own views, photographs and sketches to illustrate your
problems. (Do remember to send a photograph of your own with your name,
profession, address and telephone number or e-mail In the opening presentation of our section, we bring to you an in-depth analysis of the power crisis in Delhi, prepared by eminent citizens under the banner of the Delhi Power Consumers’ Guide with no less than Shri N.S.Vasant, former Chairman of the Punjab Electricity Board and General Manager DESU and Advisor (Energy) to the Government of Punjab. The Guild Secretary, Dr. T.R. Grover, a committed ‘power front’ activist, sent this report for bringing out the real root cause of the power crisis to the attention of the Delhiites. It is in the form of an "Open letter to the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister" in which the Delhi Power Consumers’ Guild has raised the question "Why are our Power Reforms Failing?" and offered Three-Point Solution, which seeks a revised power policy. Where It Goes Wrong E lectricity is a sensitive utility which is required to be run scientifically by correct metering and correct energy audit and peripherally at the consumer premises and centrally at the management level.However, this golden rules of power management was abandoned by the management themselves by :- 1. Allowing large scale non-replacement of faulty meters, etc. and withdrawn of conventionally used meter reading cards from consumers’ premises. This brought to an end the normal practice of correct metering and energy audit peripherally. 2. Assessing total power recovered annually by merely dividing total income by the average rate of power. This ended the practice of correct record keeping and energy audit centrally, at the management level. These measures destroyed the fundamental principle of power management and left the entire energy unaccounted in the hands of the functionaries who made DVB, a hotbed of massive billing malpractices on the one hand and scale trading of this unaccounted power with unscrupulous big users on profit sharing basis on the other. When privatisation was done simply by binding the DISCOMS to revert to the principle of full metering and energy audit at the two essential places, normalcy would have returned immediately. However, this policy was against built on opposite assumption that all ills were due to the theft of power by consumers. And the DISCOMS were asked to reduce loses 1-2% annually, to bring normalcy in 25-30 years. i) Since the policy does nothing to ensure correct metering at the two essential places, it continues to allow massive billing malpractices on the one hand and large scale trading in unaccounted power on the others, for all times to come. ii) And since theft by consumers has been put as a cause it burdens the consumers with annual tariff increase and anti-theft raids for all times to come and also loans/grants to compensate for the losses. Thus, this policy is taking us in opposite direction as it not only allows billing malpractice and pilferages to continue but also binds the govt. to tariff increases, anti-theft raids and loans / grants annually to compensate for the losses as seen in a decade of experiences in Orissa and Delhi. We are not a nation of power thieves. The boot lies on the other leg. It was the management who by abandoning the essential principle of correct metering and energy audit at essential places left all the power unaccounted in the hands of the functionaries. It was due to this that neither repeated tariff increases nor huge loans/grants put into the system annually for the last 15 years could improve the health of the power utility. The large scale anti-theft raids, police or court actions and all the might of regulatory commissions could neither recover anything nor reduce the losses as everything was pilfered to pre-determined places and became fodder for the conniving functionaries and the consumers. Even the draconian anti-theft conditionalities in the Electricity Act 2003, have borne no fruit. As such, the correct remedy lies in enforcing laws which bind the management / DISCOMS to correct the dismantled system and ensure correct metering and energy audit at essential places. Otherwise, no remedies will emerge even if the entire GDP is put at the feet of the power reformers. Guidelines / Policies which do not correct the scientific system and wrongly blame theft by consumers for all the ills are illegal and unconstitutional and must be abandoned as they are taking us in the opposite and more destructive direction as seen in a decade of Orissa and Delhi experiences. |
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