Thaindian News

New Delhi, June 28 (IANS) Several resident welfare associations (RWA) in Delhi have said they would oppose any hike in power tariff and demanded audits to weed out faulty meters, a statement said Tuesday.

The Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) should not hike the power tariff at the behest of the private distribution Companies, it said.

The residents said they would raise their voices against attempts to hike power tariffs in public hearings scheduled to begin in the first week of July.

The also slammed the faulty power meters.

“The electronic meters installed are faulty. They hinder proper delivery of power as well as end up generating inflated bills,” said Rajiv Kakria, chairman of the RWA of south Delhi’s Greater Kailash-1.

“This needs to be investigated by an independent technical institute of repute like the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT),” he added.

Anil Sood of NGO Chetan supported the RWAs and said that though power tariffs have not been raised in the past five years, residents were paying 25-40 percent higher bills.

“Experts have informed us that this is due to faulty meters,” said Sood.

“Excess billing if found should be refunded to the consumers and hefty penalty be imposed on the culprit. A similarly audit of street lights should also be conducted,” said Anil Bajpai of Gandhi Nagar RWA in east Delhi.

“We shall be making detailed submissions in the public hearing before the finalisation of tariff,” said Manmohan Mehra of Kiran Vihar RWA in east Delhi.

The Delhi High Court May 23 gave the go-ahead to the DERC to fix the power tariff for 2010-11, lifting curbs imposed on the process by the state government.