Soon Delhiites Will Be Compensated For Unscheduled Power Cuts

Every Delhiite knows about the pain of unscheduled power cuts and the agony it brings in with itself. Who knew something that we loved as a child, would be so grueling as we grow up. And, as the summer approaches, unscheduled power cuts become more and more apparent.

However, soon Delhiites will be compensated for all these hours-long unscheduled power cuts.
 

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s government has finally approved the policy on Tuesday and now sent it to the Lt. Governor for his approval. This policy revolves around the unscheduled power cuts by the private power distribution companies.

“According to this new policy, in the case of an unscheduled power cut, the DISCOMS (power distribution companies) will have to restore the electricity within one hour, and failure to do so shall result in a penalty of Rs 50 per hour per consumer for the first two hours and Rs 100 per hour per consumer after two hours,” news agency IANS quoted an official statement as saying. “The exemption of initial one hour from the penalty will be granted to discoms only once a day and, in case of recurrence of failure of supply for the same consumer on the same day, the penalty will accrue right from the beginning of the duration of the unscheduled power cut,” the government statement further said.

The entire premise of the policy is good for the consumers who, especially this time of the year, have to go through hours and hours of power cuts without any prior notice.

This compensation on power cut will be provided to the consumers in their monthly bills. And, in case of an individual consumer facing the power cut, they will have to file a “no current” complaint through SMS, e-mail, app, phone or even website. Along with the complaint, they’ll have to mention their particular including name, consumer account number, mobile number, etc. All of this will be captured in the complaint and then the discom will attend to the complaint and send a confirmation message to the consumer with the restoration date and time.

“If the compensation is not credited automatically by the discom, the consumer can approach DERC/CGRF for its resolution and the amount of compensation in such cases will be Rs 5,000, or five times the compensation payable, whichever is higher. If a group of consumers is affected by the unscheduled power cut, the discom will identify all such affected consumers from their own records and the compensation will be credited to each of such consumer’s CA number as per the time schedule of compensation,” TOI quoted an official as saying.

The Lt. Governor has to pass the policy in order to be implemented and without his approval, it won’t happen. A policy on the similar grounds was initiated in 2016 which was canceled by the then Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung, as alleged by the AAP government. Now, let’s see if Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal approves of it or not.

Jyotsna Amla