In a meeting held on Sunday afternoon,Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit,who also holds the portfolio for power,conveyed to BSES Chairman Lalit Jalan that BSES has to treat the present power crisis as an internal emergency. Dikshit had summoned Jalan to ask him to intervene personally and ensure that the Capital tides over the crisis as soon as possible. The absence of any representative from the other Delhi discom,NDPL,signified that the government is putting the onus of the problem on BSES. Senior officials in the power department revealed that the BSES had a shortfall of nearly 350 MW on Saturday night and did not move quickly enough to resolve the issue. The NDPL had a shortfall of 50 MW and bought power at Rs 11.50 per unit. The BSES too could have availed of this chance but did not do so, said a senior official. This led to large scale powercuts in West Delhi,where areas like Janakpuri and Uttam Nagar did not have electricity from 11pm to 5 am. The NDPL supplies power to North and Northeast Delhi,the BSES to East,West and South Delhi. Speaking to Newsline after the meeting,Dikshit said: Most of the complaints are emerging from areas serviced by BSES and it has been observed that their response to grievances is callous and slow. The NDPL is functioning as per schedule. Now whatever tie-ups BSES had made for the summer,almost 700 MW did not come through. I have conveyed to BSES that something is wrong with their internal set-up and they need to rectify the problem within the next four days. The BSES has been directed by the CM to increase their staff to take care of breakdowns,ensure proper coordination with the Department of Power and display information about breakdown,duration of powercut and expected time of bringing normalcy by inserting scrolls on local television channels and cable network. Explaining the unduly long power cuts,the CM said local faults are worsening the problem. I have told the BSES that all local faults have to be addressed immediately. As reported by Newsline on Sunday,the Union Power Ministry has allocated 150 MW from the Central unallocated quota to Delhi. Besides,Delhi is also being allowed to overdraw a certain amount of power from the Northern Grid as well, Dikshit added. She said her office will bring out two notices on Monday. We will provide three phone numbers,which will be answered by members from my personal staff, she said. Consumers can call with power-related complaints. The other will be an appeal to conserve power. The crisis We have not had this sort of crisis in the last five years. The extraordinary heat has led to the current shortage. People in South and East Delhi,areas supplied by BSES,are suffering the most. Measures to take I have told BSES to purchase power whatever the price. I have convened a meeting on Tuesday with the discoms and legislators to review the situation again. Sheila Dikshit,Delhi Chief Minister The crisis Due to the extremely high temperatures and no rainfall,the 700 MW that we had contracted for the summer is not reaching Delhi. This has led to the current situation. Measures to take We will be getting 100 MW from J&K. We will also be getting some power from Uttarakhand. We have also increased the number of our call centre staff. I am certain that within the next 4 days we can tide over the crisis. Lalit Jalan,Chairman,BSES I attended a meeting of the Northern Regional Power Committee in Lucknow on Saturday. States like UP,which have been overdrawing up to 1,000 MW from the Northern Grid have been told to restrict overdrawal. Rajendra Kumar,Power Secretary The NDPL will publish pamphlets with numbers of their zonal complaint centres and distribute it to consumers. An NDPL official said: Consumers who cannot get through to our call centres can directly call our zonal complaint centres.
