Sheila asks BSES to submit action plan in writing
The Hindu Reporter
NEW DELHI: The pressure to perform is mounting on the power distribution company BSES. Two days after she issued a stern warning to it, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Tuesday sought in writing the company’s action plan.

Following a meeting with the heads of the Capital’s power distribution companies, Ms. Diskhit said she wanted BSES chairperson Lalit Jalan to submit in writing the company’s action plan for the next 15 days on Wednesday.

The action plan would then be circulated to all the MLAs and MPs the Chief Minister said.

Firm that the discoms will have to purchase the power, irrespective of the price, the Chief Minister said: “It is their responsibility to procure power. It does not matter whether it is Rs.5 per unit or Rs.50.”

Even as she claimed that the power situation had improved, the Chief Minister seemed unwilling to let the company get away easily. She made it evident that the BSES’ performance had not been up to the mark and, compared to NDPL, the company needs to do more.

While hinting at possible penal action if the company fails to improve its performance, the Chief Minister did not elaborate on what the punishment could be. Any punitive action, she said, would be a well thought out one.

Referring to the complaints against the company, she said: “There were concerns raised about the number of complaints received from BSES-served areas, while there are very few, almost no complaints from the NDPL area. There have been complaints that faults that should take an hour to rectify take as long as six hours, the complaint centres are not properly manned and about the outages.”

Instructing the discoms to strengthen their infrastructure, she said: “I have warned them that with the rains humidity will increase and there will be disruptions like transformer burn-outs and damage to cables. They must be prepared.”

The Chief Minister said the MLAs would also be kept informed about the power situation and that the discoms would have to make their schedules for outages public.

Referring to the dispute that has emerged between NDPL and BSES over procurement of power from Maithon in Kharkhand, Ms. Dikshit said: “There is no war…they both have their own defined areas. Competition (being there) is good.”

She also dismissed the argument put forth by BSES that it had been let down by several generating units including Uttarakhand and that the decline in hydropower generation affected its supply. “These are just excuses, there is trading (through the Power Exchange) happening on a daily basis,” she said.