Back to the dark ages

The people of Chandigarh got a shock when they picked up their morning newspaper last Friday -- quot;Power tariff in UT hiked for all co...

The people of Chandigarh got a shock when they picked up their morning newspaper last Friday 8212; quot;Power tariff in UT hiked for all consumersquot; 8212; and no small hike either: 12 per cent for domestic consumers and 18 per cent for all other categories. Less than a year ago the rates were jacked up by 15 to 20 per cent for domestic consumers and 30 per cent for the rest.

The Administration cites increased demand to justify the hike and says it8217;s either pay more or bear power cuts. The hike has not been taken smile and a shrug; most people are already on short rations 8212; literally 8212; thanks to the high cost of just about all foodstuffs. Two months ago a cost-of-living survey put Chandigarh at the top of the list. With the new power tariff, the UT is going to go right off the chart.

A hike in power tariff is bad news for everybody from business tycoons to casual labourers. With a higher electricity bill to pay, industrial units will have to 1 raise the price of goods or 2 cut back. Higher priced goods translate as falling sales and cut back translates as immediate fall in production and immediate rise in unemployment. Reduced profits and reduced 8212; or vanished 8212; wages mean recession. Everything becomes costlier and at the same time, buying power shrinks. Yes, it8217;s happening all over Asia, but that8217;s not much consolation for us in Chandigarh.

The Chandigarh consumer8217;s first question concerns basic good housekeeping: Are the UT8217;s power resources being effectively, thriftily managed? It is no secret that several large industries have run up electricity bill arrears that run into crores. Why has the UT Electricity Department failed to collect? The domestic consumer who doesn8217;t pay up on the due date soon finds himself in the dark so why is the meter kept running for the defaulting industrialist? At the other end of the scale are the thousands upon thousands of micro power-thefts committed every day via the unabashed use of kundis. Every week newspaper readers are treated to reports of kundi-removals carried out at one or another labour colony.

The reports usually end with the terse observation that quot;no sooner did the enforcement staff depart than jhuggi-dwellers emerged with replacements and by the time darkness fell the lights were back.quot; Universal 8212; and permanent 8212; removal of kundis is crucial to any scheme to provide metered electricity to slum residents. Few would oppose a scheme to provide minimal power to very poor people 8212; if nothing else, electrifying the slums may give the residents something else to do besides breed.

Likewise, few would oppose subsiding the scheme heavily. But as a matter of principle, free electricity cannot be allowed. To the unresisting sheep otherwise known as the honest electricity consumer one thing that makes this latest tariff hike so unpalatable is that he knows that he8217;s being fleeced because the government lacks the political will to take the shears to the really big and woolly crooks. Will the UT Electricity Department ever act to end mismanagement and tighten control on resources. Can it act?