Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday approved a policy to compensate consumers for unscheduled power cuts by private power distribution companies in the national capital.
According to the new policy, in the case of unscheduled power cuts, the discoms will have to restore electricity within one hour, and failure to do so shall result in a penalty of Rs 50 per hour per consumer for the first two hours followed by Rs 100 per hour per consumer after two hours.
The policy will come into effect after approval from Lt Governor (L-G) Anil Baijal.
“In a first of its kind pro-power consumer policy in the country, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today approved the power department’s policy for compensating consumers for unscheduled power cuts by private power distribution companies in Delhi,” a statement issued by Delhi government said.
The government hopes that the policy will be approved by the L-G.
“The Delhi government is confident that the L-G will concur with the policy and will endorse this pro-consumer step, which will become a model for other governments in the country,” it said.
Under the policy, discoms will be exempted from paying penalty in the first hour of an unscheduled power cut. The first hour exemption from penalty will be available once a day for the discoms.
The compensation earned by the consumers will be adjusted against their monthly power bill.
In case, the compensation is not paid by the discoms, the consumers can lodge a complaint with the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Authority (DERC).
The amount of compensation in such cases will be Rs 5,000 or five times of the compensation payable, whichever is higher, said the statement.
The affected consumers will be required to file a “no current” complaint through SMS, email, telephone, mobile apps or official websites of discoms, giving their particulars such as name, consumer account (CA) number, mobile number.