JOIN US'Order to reduce power tariff was never notified'
Chief secretary P K Tripathi on Monday refuted allegations that the former DERC chairperson had notified an order in June 2010 to reduce power tariff.
Tripathi said the allegations are “totally baseless” and no such order was ever notified.
He said the allegations were based on just a note by former Delhi Electricity Regulation Commission chairperson Brijender Singh. He said even the Delhi High Court in May, 2011 ruled that no such tariff order had been issued.
“The issue has already been settled by the Delhi High Court. The matter was taken to the High Court by former MLA Nand Kishore Garg, who wanted this alleged tariff order to be enforced,” said Tripathi.
“The court in its judgment on May 23, 2011 held that there was no doubt that the tariff order was not signed and hence, no order was made,” said Tripathi.
He said the court even declined to issue the ‘writ of mandamus’ directing DERC to enforce the order since no such order existed.
Recently, BJP and Arvind Kejriwal had alleged that the city government had interfered with DERC’s decision to reduce power tariff. The BJP claimed that DERC had concluded that discoms were making huge profits and the rates could be reduced.
“All these allegations are completely baseless and factually incorrect. The assumptions by the former DERC chairperson was based on availability of power at a particular rate, which was simply not the case,” said Tripathi.
“He assumed the availability of certain generating stations by certain date, which also did not materialise. So DERC concluded that the surplus as projected in the opinion of the former DERC chairperson simply didn’t exist,” added Tripathi.
He said no such order to reduce tariff exists, and the question that the city government blocked it (the order) and did not enforce it, does not arise.