BJP playing with power tariff in capital, says AAP

After the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission rolled back the hike in power tariff on Friday, the Aam Aadmi Party accused the BJP of conspiring with the power regulator.

The decision to rollback comes a day after the power regulator announced a hike in the electricity tariff due to increase in fuel surcharge.

Putting Bharatiya Janata Party in dock for DERC’s hasty withdrawal, AAP leader Yogendra Yadav said, “The entire drama raises a serious question mark on the role of the DERC as an independent power sector regulator and makes it clear that it was working under the directions of the BJP regime.”

The party said that it has maintained that the electricity tariff structure in Delhi should not be touched till the account books of power distribution companies are thoroughly scrutinised by the Comptroller & Auditor General.

“The DERC U-turn has proved that it allowed its autonomy to be trampled by the BJP’s central government and the unresponsive Delhi administration with the sole intention of letting the private power distribution companies (discoms) to impose an unnecessary burden on the people,” the party said in a statement.

“It is shocking that the BJP’s central government, which is ruling Delhi through a backdoor since last six months, has taken a strange stand on the CAG audit of discoms, which appears similar to that of the previous Congress government, which had allowed the discoms to loot the people of Delhi,” the statement added.

Indicating that the party had slashed the electricity tariff by half during the fleeting AAP government, the party claimed that it will again give a relaxation in power tariff if voted to power.

AAP said it will ask the people of Delhi to continue opposing ‘unjustified’ hikes.