Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena has asked Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar to direct the power department to place before the Council of Ministers the advice of the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) on capping power subsidy in the city And 15 take decision within days.

LG directs on DERC report

The Lieutenant Governor gave this direction on the statutory advice of DERC given to the Delhi government regarding ‘limiting’ power subsidy to ‘poor and needy consumers’. Reacting to this direction, the Delhi government said that the Lieutenant Governor has once again violated the Supreme Court’s directions and the Constitution by going beyond his jurisdiction in an ‘illegal’ manner. ,Chief Secretary had prepared the report

Officials said the report on which Saxena’s instructions are based was prepared by Chief Secretary Kumar. He made this report while looking into the complaints of non-payment of dues by the power distribution companies to the power generation companies. It was handed over to Lieutenant Governor and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in December . , The Chief Secretary in his report had advised the Delhi government to give power subsidy to consumers having only three or five kilowatt electricity connections. Due to this, almost 349 percent consumers of the capital are under subsidy. come and the government gets about 349 crores of rupees per year. There would be savings. The DERC advised that consumers with an electrical load of more than five kilowatts would certainly not be ‘poor’ and should not be subsidised. ,The report was rejected by Satyendar Jain in favor of the current plan

As per the report of the Chief Secretary, the Electricity Department has 25 april, 2021 again put a note before the then power minister Satyendar Jain, but it was rejected in favor of the current plan. The Chief Secretary’s report states that the power department not only failed to place the statutory advice of the DERC for the consideration of the Lieutenant Governor, but also did not place it before the cabinet for consideration. According to the report, the approval of the Finance Department was not even taken before going ahead with the existing subsidy scheme. ,LG Saxena gave instructions to the Chief Secretary

On the basis of this report, the Lieutenant Governor has asked the Chief Secretary to inform the Chief Minister about the alleged lapse in the conduct of business rules by the then Power Minister and request him to inform the members of his Council of Ministers. Instruct to follow the provisions scrupulously.

with language input.

DelhiLGPublished Date

Sat, Mar 11, 2023, 11: 11 AM IST