Day two of the walkathon against the 22 percent increase in the power tariff in Delhi didn’t look all that bad. The United Residents Joint Action (URJA), a conglomeration of resident welfare associations (RWAs), held the protest walk through Trinagar and went to Ashok Vihar to meet the area MLA.

Around 10 members of the Trinagar RWA and five core member of URJA went to meet Anil Bhardwaj, MLA, Trinagar, at 10.30 am on Friday only to find out that he managed to evade them.

Bhardwaj sits in his office in the constituency from Monday to Friday from 9 am to 11 am. This is when he is available to interact with his voters about the problems they are facing and helps solve them. After the members reached his office they found the MLA was busy in an important public meeting.

Atul Goyal, convenor of URJA, asked the secretary to make him talk to the MLA on the phone. But the number was not reachable.

Goyal said, “This is what happened to us even yesterday, we had gone to meet the MLAs of Patel Nagar, Rajendra Nagar and Karol Bagh and none of them met us. We only want to meet them once to submit our memorandum and ask for their support.”

The memorandum has three simple demands: bring NDPL (North Delhi Power Limited), BSES Rajhani and BSES Yamuna under the ambit of RTI, get the accounts of power distribution companies audited by CAG (the comptroller and auditor general) and use section 108 to stop the tariff hike.

Last year, the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) had indicated a reduction of power tariff by 20 percent but the Delhi government used section 108 of the Electricity Act to block the order. Now, the team wants the commission to use the same section to stop the tariff order until the CAG finishes its audit.

After being unable to meet the MLA, the RWA members suggested they should meet the councillor.

Atul Lal Singh, councillor, Trinagar, invited the members of URJA and RWAs to his residence, heard the plea and said, “I am in no position to support you. I don’t have any powers. I agree with you on everything you said. In fact, NDPL is more corrupt than BSES. But how can I go against my party? I have to operate within the framework.”

Ashutosh Dixit of People’s Action, who is also organising the logistics of the walk, said, “This is the problem. Even if he agrees to what we are saying at an individual level he will not take a stand against his party. It is blasphemy to do so, whether it is the Congress or BJP. They have such tight limitations that it is difficult to garner their support.”

About 70 constituencies will be covered by the walkathon where the team would meet each and every MLA and persuade them to give their support.

Harish Shankar Gupta, MLA, Ashok Vihar, approached the issue positively and said, “The Delhi high court has given the order to get the audit of all the three companies by CAG and the Delhi government has agreed to it. So be assured that it will done.”Gupta added, “There is a huge uproar in the Delhi legislative assembly on this issue. It won’t pass off so easily. With respect to power, the situation is so bad that I know of MLAs who call up their homes and find out if there is electricity at home and only then go back.”

He went ahead and said, “I accept your suggestions. And will express my objections on this in the assembly.”

“This is what we want. They should at least mobilise the talk. People should discuss it. We only need 50 MLAs to turn this whole thing upside down," said Sanjay Kaul, founder of People’s Action and chairperson URJA.

On day one, the peaceful march of not more than 10 people landed them in detention at the parliament street police station because they were ‘obstructing peace’ and more than five people cannot walk with placards on a road without police permission.

Kaul said, “If we raise an issue which matters equally to all of us, we are disturbing peace. Nobody wants to challenge the status quo. We don’t have a problem in paying extra, but let’s at least know if we really need to pay it.”

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Delhites to walk against power tariff hikes

To conduct walkathon across the capital

Burdened by increasing tariff hikes in electricity bills, Delhi residents have decided to take things in their own hands. United Residents Joint Action (URJA), a conglomeration of resident welfare associations (RWAs), launched a walkathon on Thursday to protest against increasing tariff hike.

URJA members will conduct walks across 70 constituencies and will meet the RWA constituents and MLAs of each constituency with their set of demands.

“We have just two basic demands. Get the accounts of the power distribution companies audited by the comptroller and auditor general (CAG) and bring these companies under the ambit of the right to information (RTI) act. Currently, the companies are not accountable to anybody. Whenever the discoms tell the government that they are facing losses and need to increase tariff, the government keeps mum and gives them a free hand,” said Sanjay Kaul, chairperson, URJA.

On first day of the campaign, URJA members were detained for around 30 minutes when they were on their way from Jantar Mantar to the residence of V K Malhotra, leader of the opposition in Delhi assembly. 

Malhotra, a BJP leader said that the campaign had dull support of his party.

Members of the association also met the MLAs of three legislative constituencies- Rajendra Nagar, Karol Bagh and Patel Nagar.

Last month, Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit said that the recent tariff increase of 22 percent granted to the three discoms- BSES Rajdhani, BSES Yamuna and NDPL was not enough and the companies might to for another round of hike.

The chief minister justified the hike by saying that the cost of power on Delhi was still much lower as compared to other states.

Commenting about the same Kaul said, “Last year, when the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) indicated that it would reduce power tariff by 20 percent the Delhi government used section 108 of the electricity act to block the order. This year when the commission has increased the tariffs by 22 percent why does not the government use the same section to stop the tariff order until the CAG finishes its audit?”