New Delhi: Hoping to return to power in Delhi after 15 years, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday virtually kickstarted its election campaign with a major offensive against Sheila Dikshit government on a range of issues including electricity tariff hikes in the last two years. It unveiled a "formula" to cut the power rates by 30 per cent if the party wins the polls.
The party held a rally in New Delhi at Ramlila Ground which was attended by BJP President Rajnath Singh, Delhi election in-charge Nitin Gadkari and senior leaders of the party's Delhi Unit. Addressing the rally, Singh gave a call to throw out the "corrupt" Congress government in the city while promising to ensure welfare of all sections of the society if the BJP comes to power in the polls slated for November.
"This huge, very huge rally at Ramlila Maidan has sent a strong message that now no power in the world can stop the current government in Delhi from losing the election," Singh said.
Speaking on the occasion, Goel alleged a "massive scam" in the power sector in Delhi and claimed that consumers are being "fleeced" by the private power distribution companies in cooperation with the Delhi Government. He unveiled a 10-point formula to bring down the electricity rates by 30 per cent.
"To pay electricity bills, you will soon have to take loans from banks. It's not a BJP rally, it is an 'aakrosh rally'. It is a movement against the exploitation. If voted to power, we will reduce the tariff by 30 per cent. If my formula is followed, the Chief Minister can cut tariff from tomorrow onwards," he said.
Goel is a long-standing aspirant for the chief minister's job but he is confronted by growing dissidence from within, with party stalwarts like VK Malhotra, Vijender Gupta and Aarti Mehra being totally opposed to him. Explaining his formula, Goel compared the power sector with telecom sector and wondered why the electricity tariff cannot be brought down if competition is encouraged among various discoms.
"In 1996, mobile rate for incoming and outgoing was Rs 16 and now it is 30 paisa. Because of competition, the rates came down. The day we come to power, we will make the discoms compete with each other. We will cut tariff by 30 per cent if we come to power," Goel said.
At present, each of the three private power distribution companies operates in separate areas and there is no competition among them. "We will bring competition among the discoms. There will be freedom to choose discoms by the consumers. The consumers will have choice to choose from multiple discoms and it will result in cut in the rates," Goel said.
Promising to bring transparency in the power sector if his party won the polls, the Delhi BJP president said discoms and Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission will be put under the ambit of CAG. "We will bring transparent power purchase mechanism. The discoms sell you costly power because they buy it at higher rates from their own companies and put the burden on the consumers...We will bring these companies under RTI. We will also be setting up laboratories in every district to monitor and test the electricity metres," he said.
"Crores of rupees are being sent to the private discoms because they are buying material from their own companies and showing it at high rate...The way they were (the UPA) caught in 2G scam, the Delhi government will also be caught here," he said.
Slamming the Delhi government on scarcity of water, Goel said half of Delhi "remains thirsty" always though the Chief Minister claims that only a few places don't get water. The power tariff in the city was hiked by 22 per cent in 2011 followed by a five per cent hike in February, 2012. The tariff was hiked by up to two per cent in May last year and again by 26 per cent for domestic consumers in July, 2012.
The tariff was hiked by up to three per cent in February. In July, the tariff was hiked by five per cent but immediately Dikshit had announced subsidy for those consumers whose monthly consumption does not exceed 400 units.
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