Kejriwal threatens to 'throw out' BSES discoms

Amid Delhi Government's standoff with BSES discoms, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today said the two companies will be "thrown out" of Delhi if they fail to improve their services and new players will be brought in to replace them.

At the same time, Kejriwal praised performance of Tata Power Delhi Distribution Ltd (TPDDL), saying the discom was doing a "good job" in the city and government was satisfied with its services.

"The TPDDL is doing a good job. But Anil Ambani group discoms have not paid dues to NTPC. If they fail to ensure better service, they would be thrown out of Delhi and new companies would be appointed," the Chief Minister said addressing a rally at Burari.

Kejriwal's comments came on a day the Supreme Court directed NTPC not to cut power supply to BSES discoms till March 26 for not clearing outstanding dues of over Rs 300 crore.

The Chief Minister also accused BSES discoms of not paying their dues to NTPC deliberately and creating a situation so that AAP government can be blamed for power cuts.

NTPC had last week served notices of power supply suspension to BSES discoms and said electricity supplies will be snapped if they do not clear their dues by February 10.

BSES discoms had informed the government that they did not have money to buy power and the city may reel under long outages if funds are not provided to them.

On Monday, the Delhi government had recommended to the DERC to revoke the licences of BSES discoms if they resort to long outages in areas of their operation citing fund crunch to arrange power.