L-G okays pro-consumer policy

Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal on Thursday approved proposal of the Delhi Government to compensate consumers for power outages in the national Capital. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had sent a detailed proposal of his Cabinet to Baijal on Tuesday last for his final approval.

"Power Consumer Compensation Policy" is a major policy push of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to compensate consumers in the wake of power cuts.

Soon after approving the policy, the L-G tweeted, "Approved proposal for issue of policy directions regarding payment of compensation to consumers in case of power failure."

Billed as "power consumer compensation policy", electricity users will be monetarily compensated by discoms if the unscheduled power cut lasts more than an hour. According to officials, Kejriwal on Tuesday had cleared the proposal to be sent to the L-G for his nod.

According to the policy, in the first hour exemption from penalty to be available only once a day for DISCOMS; it will have to pay Rs 100 per hour per consumer after first two hours of power cuts and compensation to be provided in consumer's monthly electricity bill.

"In the case of an unscheduled power cut, the discoms will have to restore the electricity within one hour. And if the provider has failed to do so, shall result in a penalty of Rs 50 per hour per consumer," the policy states.

An official said the Government is of the view that power distribution by private players in Delhi should benefit the consumers and uninterrupted power supply for which they pay is their right. "Our Government is confident that the LG will concur with the policy and will endorse this pro-consumer step, which will become a model for other Governments across the country to follow," the official said.

Elaborating further, the Delhi Government in its official statement had said, "The exemption of initial one hour from the penalty shall be granted to the discoms only once a day, and in case of recurrence of failure of supply for the same consumer the same day, the penalty shall accrue right from the beginning of the duration of the unscheduled power cut."

"This may be further noted that in case of an individual consumer being affected, the consumer shall be required to file a complaint through SMS, e-mail, phone, app or website and his/her particulars such as name, consumer account (CA) number, mobile number, etc, shall be noted at the time of complaint registration," in accordance of the new policy.