Women happy over Metro free ride plan: Kejriwal Cong accuses govt of tweaking meter norms
New Delhi, June 8: Hard selling his government’s proposed scheme for free metro and bus travel for women in the city, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal Saturday claimed not a single woman he met during the day was unhappy with the move.
Mr Kejriwal made the claim during a foot march in the Malviya Nagar Assembly constituency where he interacted with local residents.
“The scheme will be rolled out within twoand-a-half months. I’ve asked each and every woman here, and not a single woman I’ve met since morning has told me she is not happy with free travel in Metro and bus,” he claimed.
The chief minister also directed installation of an adequate number of transformers in the area to prevent any further distribution problems.
“Delhi is the only city in the country that offers 24-hour power supply to all its residents,” he claimed and added “there are some pockets in the city that are facing issues related to power and water supply.” “New transformers will be installed in areas where faults have been observed,” he said.
On the NDA government’s insistence on implementing Ayushman Bharat in Delhi, Mr Kejriwal said, “According to the Centre’s scheme, if you have a refrigerator, a two-wheeler or a television, you are not considered poor. Does this mean the rest of the people are not poor? The Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) on Saturday alleged that the AAP government coaxed people living in rented accommodations to install separate power meters, following which the DERC increased the fixed charges benefitting the discoms.
At a press conference, the party’s Delhi unit president Sheila Dikshit alleged that the Arvind Kejriwal government “enacted a drama of installing lakhs of meters to benefit the power companies.” “Electricity bills used to be nominal before. In the name of fixed charges, the government collected crores of rupees and gave it to power discoms,” she alleged.
The Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) is the competent authority for fixing power
consumption rates in the national capital. The Delhi Congress’ working president, Haroon Yusuf, accused the AAP government of “befooling people” and making them install lakhs of power meters in JJ clusters, unauthorised colonies, and elsewhere. “After the meters were installed, the fixed charge component of power tariff was raised causing a lot of trouble to the poor. This money is going to the discoms,” he alleged. “Now, in the runup to the (Assembly) elections,
Kejriwal has been saying he will ask the regulator to roll back the hike in the fixed charge,” Mr Yusuf said. During a public meeting on June 1, Mr Kejriwal claimed that the DERC had raised the fixed charge component of power tariff last year “without consulting the Delhi government.”
“New tariff rates will be fixed next month. We have asked the DERC to bring the fixed charges to previous levels and they are likely to agree to it,” he had said.