Kejriwal asks discoms to go, if they violate terms

Delhi government had last Monday recommended to the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission that it revoke the licences of BSES discoms if they resort to long outages citing funds crunch.

NTPC had served notices over interruption in supply on BSES discoms and said that electricity supply will be snapped if they do not clear their dues by February 10. However, Supreme Court on Thursday directed NTPC not to cut power supply to BSES till March 26.

BSES discoms have informed the government that they do not have the money to buy power and the city may reel under long outages if funds are not provided to them.  Kejriwal said discoms will not be allowed to threaten the government.

Asked about the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity's directive to DERC that a final decision on cancellation of licences of BSES discoms should not be taken without its approval, the Chief Minister said that the order favoured the government.

“That order is in our favour. It is clearly written that it is a victory of the Delhi government. The order says that ‘you (DERC) can go ahead and if you taken action, let us know'. Letting them know doesn't mean we cannot take action,” he explained.

Asked when the CAG would submit the report on scrutiny of discoms' accounts, he said that the auditor had informed him that it may take three to four months for the same.  

“When I spoke to the CAG, they said that if they (discoms) cooperate with us, then it should take three to four months.  In the last two-three days, the power department has told me, they have started giving some records. So lets see how they do it,” he said.