DERC controlled like a 'puppet' by Arvind Kejriwal, says Congress' Haroon Yusuf

Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee Working President Haroon Yusuf on Thursday said the Delhi Congress abstained from the public hearing to discuss the power tariff hike, organised by regulator Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) on Wednesday, as the "one-member DERC has become a joke" and is "controlled like a puppet" by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

Yusuf said that the meeting was reduced to a shadow boxing between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the BJP to fool the people, who were represented by the Residents' Welfare Associations, read a statement.

Yusuf said that the DERC should comprise of three members, but for the past two years, it has been functioning with just one member, who is the chairman of the power regulatory body. He said that the Delhi government has not bothered to fill the two vacant posts of members in the DERC, which shows the lack of interest of the AAP government, in the affairs of the power regulatory body, the statement added.

The Congress leader reiterated the party's demand that the hiked fixed charges should be rolled back immediately and the crores collected on this head should be either returned to power consumers or adjusted in the power bills.

Yusuf said that the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee has been demanding that Rs 5,040 crore amount collected by the power companies in fixed charges should either be returned to the consumers or no power tariff should be charged from the consumers for the next six months.

He said that the fixed charges were hiked six times more and pension funds at the rate of 3.8 per cent was illegally collected from the power consumers though according to the tripartite agreement with the power distribution companies, it was the responsibility of the DISCOMS to contribute to the pension funds.

Yusuf also said the pension funds should be rolled back and the money collected from the consumers on this head should be returned to the consumers.

When a delegation, under the leadership of DPCC president Sheila Dikshit, who was the Chief Minister of Delhi for 15 years, met Kejriwal at his residence on June 12, it had demanded that the crores collected from the power consumers on the fixed charges head should either be returned to the public, or adjusted in the power bills, the Congress leader revealed.

The DPCC delegation included Yusuf, other Working Presidents Rajesh Lilothia and Devender Yadav, former Delhi Ministers Ramakant Goswami and Kiran Walia, spokespersons Jitender Kumar Kochar and Harnam Singh.

-ANI