North Corpn demands free electricity supply in parks

Terming provision of parks in residential colonies as ‘service’ for public good without any scope of revenue generation, the North Delhi Municipal Corporation has demanded the city government to supply power to run tubewells in parks free of cost.

The civic body passed a resolution in a House meeting on Tuesday demanding waiver of electricity bill. “Electricity companies are functioning in association with the city government as a joint undertaking to supply power in the interest of the public,” said leader of the House Mahendra Nagpal.

General utility

“Many general utility programmes are conducted by these joint undertakings. So in public interest, free electricity should be supplied to tubewells to make water arrangements in parks,”  he said.

The ruling party leaders said parks do not generate revenue for the corporation, yet discoms charge commercial rate while calculating electricity bill for parks.

There are some 5,000 parks under the North Corporation, out of which around 600 are ornamental parks.

According to corporation officials, electricity bills for running tubewells in each ornamental park run into thousands of rupees.

Nagpal said the North Delhi Power Ltd (NDPL) charges commercial rate for supplying power to the parks.

“This is despite the fact that the parks are for public use and not for generating revenue. On an average, the bill for running tubewells and high-mast lights in ornamental parks costs around Rs 10,000 per month,” he added.

Currently, NDPL issues coupons to run the tubewells. The motors running the tubewells get disconnected once the value of the coupon lapses.

Corporation officials said maintenance work gets affected as the tubewells cease to operate because of this.

Corporation leaders said discoms are charging the civic body heavily despite the fact that the North Corporation does not levy any tax on discoms for installing transformers in the parks, which is a property of the corporation.