Vidyut Board’s bumpy road to privatisation

The first step towards privatisation was letting a private body handle street lights in east Delhi. Amid much fanfare the DVB announced this and shortlisted several companies and decided to award the contract to one company. Then trouble began brewing: Unions resented the move and the Board sent back the proposal by the company for reconsideration. According to spokesman Jagdish Kapoor: “The private company was asking for Rs 1.5 crore extra. The civic agencies pay us Rs 3 crore and the company wanted Rs 4.5 crore. Secondly they even refused to check power theft from street poles.”

The DVB is now contemplating “dropping the company or the entire street light privatisation project for the time being,” says another official.DVB says that the private concern developed cold feet after certain conditions like checking power theft from street lights and ensuring at least 95 per cent street lights worked at night. But they have no explanation for the brouhaha about privatisation in east Delhi even as there was nothing concrete either on paper or on the ground.

“Areas like Safdarjung Development Area, Gulmohar Park, Green Park and some others have been worst affected. And in its present shape, the DVB cannot provide electricity to the mammoth south Delhi. We have a shortage of meter readers, enforcement staff and in some cases even the will to work lacks. Thus we are contemplating the privatisation of the entire power distribution system in south Delhi,” he adds.

Member Technical Y.P. Singh chose not to comment on the issue at such a “crucial stage”. However, sources say that ICICI is preparing the documentation and working out the feasibility of the project. Its report is expected earliest at the end of the financial year.

“But all these are just ways of postponing the inevitable. DVB chairman Virender Singh knows that his team will not be able to provide uninterrupted power supply to south Delhi. There is nobody to check power theft on a regular basis or to check pilferage either. Privatising it will ensure that theft and pilferage is minimised. But the main problem is nobody wants to take the bull by the horns and deal with the unions effectively,” confides another official.

But the DVB still continues to make the right kind of noises. Says spokesman Kapoor: “We have launched a project in R.K. Puram where we are offering Rs 5 per meter to individuals to go from house to house and read the meter and another Rs 5 if the person also gets the cheque every month.” Of course the Board will verify the antecedents of the person before handing him the bill book.