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People of Delhi will stop getting subsidized electricity from Friday, says power minister Atishi; blames LG VK Saxena.
NEW DELHI: Delhi’s subsidized electricity scheme, which provided free electricity to people consuming up to 200 units, has been stopped, power minister Atishi revealed on Friday, blaming the Lieutenant Governor – a representative of the Centre.
Addressing a press conference, the power minister said that beneficiaries will not get subsidized electricity beginning Friday because LG VK Saxena did not clear the file for its extension.
“Starting today, the provision of subsidized electricity to the residents of Delhi has been discontinued. Consequently, from tomorrow, the discounted bills will no longer be issued,” she said.
The AAP leader said that though AAP intends to continue chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s flagship scheme, the “relevant file is still with the Delhi LG”. “Until it is returned, the AAP government cannot issue the subsidized bills.”
Introduced by the Kejriwal government in 2019, the scheme extends a 50 per cent subsidy for consumers using between 201-400 units of electricity a month.
The Delhi Cabinet approved extending the subsidy scheme for the next year on April 4. On that day, power minister Atishi claimed that officials in the department were under pressure to stop the free electricity scheme. She had said that the file was yet to be sent to the LG for approval.
In response to Atishi’s allegations, LG Saxena’s office said that he is not against power subsidies for the poor but called for an audit to ensure that no pilferage occurs.
His office has criticized the AAP government for not conducting an audit of ₹13,549 crore given to private DISCOMs (distribution companies) over the past six years.
“The LG questions the Kejriwal government for not invoking Section 108 of the Electricity Act, 2003 to make it compulsory for DERC to audit DISCOMs till now. LG underlines that audit by CAG empanelled auditors cannot and should not be considered a substitute for CAG audit,” the LG office said in a statement.
LG Saxena also expressed surprise that the government’s appeal in the Supreme Court against the high court order quashing the CAG audit of DISCOMs has been pending for more than seven years and asked the government to expedite the appeal by filing for an urgent hearing.
