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The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Monday accused the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government of protecting private power distribution companies in Delhi. It also asked its main rival Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to clear its stand on power tariff and the audit of power companies in Delhi.
The AAP was reacting to Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal’s statement on Sunday that a comptroller and auditor general (CAG) audit of the power companies in Delhi since 2002 couldn’t be carried out, as the companies maintain a record of only the past eight years.
“One thing is clear from his statement that they are trying to mislead Delhi citizens. His claim that the CAG audit of these discoms couldn’t happen because companies maintain an eight year record is completely false. The Delhi government has 49 per cent stakes in BSES Yamuna, BSES Rajdhani and rest, 51 per cent is with the power companies. Even if these firms destroy the records, the Delhi government and the Centre can preserve it,” AAP leader Ashish Khetan said at a press conference here.
The power distribution in Delhi was privatised in 2002. The AAP has been demanding an audit into the accounts of these companies based on which it will set the power rates in the national capital. The AAP government had also ordered a CAG audit when it came to power for 49 days in December 2013. Goyal said the government found the CAG is unable to conduct audit because the records of only past eight years were maintained by these power firms.
"Kejriwal's government had ordered a CAG audit of the discoms from 2002 to 2014... I recently called a meeting of discoms officials and asked them why they were not giving their records to the CAG (but) they said they do not have records of more than the last eight years," Goyal said, news agency Press Trust of India had reported on Sunday.
Goyal also said he had “doubts” if Kejriwal wanted to benefit Delhi’s citizens or “wanted to protect these companies by announcing a CAG audit since 2002.”
The AAP said the assets of the government were transferred in the initial years of privatisation of the electricity department in 2002.
“In the first two years, the government assets were transferred. Why are they worried about this? Why are they afraid of the audits of initial years of the power companies? The people of Delhi want to know if they have got the right price for the transferred assets,” Khetan further said. Khetan even questioned why the central government is “defending” the power companies and said it is trying to speak in their voice.
Khetan even asked the BJP to clarify its stand on conducting audits of the power companies. “Earlier they had said there will be a complete audit, later claimed there is a Delhi High Court order by which audit cannot take place, now they are saying the audit will be done for the past eight years. They need to come clear on this.”
The party further asked the BJP to clarify its stance on their promise of a power rate reduction in Delhi. “First they promised a 30 per cent tariff reduction. After Kiran Bedi joined the party, there were advertisements in the national newspapers that power rates will be halved. Later, they said they will bring competition among power companies which we have been promising since the last year. Now, they claim LED bulbs will reduce the power cost. We want to ask them what their stand on electricity rates is,” asked AAP spokesperson Yogendra Yadav.
The AAP has promised a 50 per cent reduction in power tariff if elected to power in the upcoming Delhi elections. It has also promised an audit of the power companies.
