Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal (Files)
Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal approved the AAP government’s proposal to give monetary compensation to consumers in case of unscheduled power cuts. As per the new policy, in cases of unscheduled power cuts, discoms will have to restore electricity “within an hour”. Failure to do so shall result in a penalty of Rs 100 for each hour of power outage. The initial exemption of an hour, officials said, would be granted “only once a day”, failing which, the penalty “shall accrue from the beginning of the duration of unscheduled power cut”.
The compensation earned by the consumers will be adjusted against their monthly power bill. The proposal was passed by the Delhi government on Tuesday and was awaiting the L-G’s nod. “Approved proposal for issue of policy directions regarding payment of compensation to consumers in case of power failure,” Baijal tweeted on Thursday.
Reacting to the development, CM Arvind Kejriwal tweeted, “This is a revolutionary and a very innovative policy of Delhi government which will make discoms directly accountable to people.”
Delhi has now become the first city in the country to have a policy to compensate consumers for unscheduled outages. If compensation is not paid, consumers can lodge a complaint with the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Authority. In such cases, the compensation will be Rs 5,000 or five times of the compensation payable, whichever is higher.