Power bills to remain cheaper in Delhi: Minister

The Delhi government won't hike electricity rates this year, Power Minister Satyendar Jain said in the assembly on Friday.

The Delhi government is the only one in the country which hasn't hiked electricity rate in the past two years, he said while replying to a question by Leader of Opposition and BJP MLA Vijender Gupta.

The discussion became noisy when Gupta said that the government had appointed the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) Chairman without following procedures and it was struck down by the high court and a new chairman had to be appointed.

To this, Jain replied that the High Court order had been challenged in the Supreme Court.

The Minister went on to add that the Delhi government had followed norms in the appointment and the previous Lieutenant Governor cancelled the appointment for political reasons.

When Gupta pressed for an answer on whether electricity bills will become expensive, Jain said: "It was you who tweeted four-five days back that electricity rates would go up."

"You can work for it (for hiking power tariffs) and we will work for the rates to remain unchanged," he added.

--IANS

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