The Delhi Lt Governor's guidelines for conserving electricity to tide over the power crisis "is an attempt to bury the city's precarious power situation and give it a temporary make-up when it needs a permanent face-lift", NGO Greenpeace has said.
A day after LG Najeeb Jung issued guidelines for the government to adopt measures to save power, Greenpeace slammed the move saying it was "unjustified" and called for efforts to harness renewable energy as a solution to the problem.
From orders for high-mast halogen street lamps to be switched off during peak night hours to directing that power supply to malls be discontinued post 10 P.M., the LG has announced a slew of measures to spare the city the discomfort of outages in the sweltering heat.
Faulting these measures, Greenpeace charged that although Delhi has an immense potential to generate solar power, no steps have been taken by the government to encourage the harnessing of renewable energy in the national capital.
"The switching off of streetlights post 10 P.M. Is an imprudent decision in a city like Delhi, infamous for crimes against women," says Pujarini Sen, Campaigner, Renewable Energy, Greenpeace India, adding that, "plunging streets into darkness late at night can lead to escalation of violence against women."
Last year, the Delhi Police found 1,580 dark spots in the city. In such unsafe times, the state must immediately look towards using solar energy to improve street lighting in Delhi, the NGO said.
Greenpeace said that the 'Rooftop Revolution' report released by it last year details the state's solar power potential: Out of 700sq.Km of total built-up roof space in Delhi, about 31sq.Km is available for utilisation to generate 2,557MW electricity.
"All three major political parties in the state have time and again committed in their manifestos that they will develop solar power in Delhi. But no government has moved on it except on paper," said Anand Prabu Pathanjali, Campaigner, Renewable Energy at Greenpeace India.
"Despite having a good potential for solar energy, Delhi set a meagre RPO target of 4.8 per cent this year. However, the discoms wrote back to DERC in May stating they won't be able to achieve it," added Pathanjali.
RPO targets decide how much electricity produced in a state should come from renewable sources.
Greenpeace demanded that the L-G immediately call for implementation of the draft solar energy policy which is stuck with the state's power department.
"A solar policy was even drafted last year, but it got stalled in the power department and has been gathering dust for over six months now," said Pathanjali.
"Irrespective of how many lights are turned off, there will be no end to power cuts unless generation and distribution of electricity is diversified and Delhi is made self-reliant via rooftop solar power," he added.
