Delhi govt asks power suppliers to send SMSes before outage
Delhi government has told power distribution companies to inform people of unscheduled power cuts via SMS, besides increasing the number of call centre attendants for complaints. Deputy CM Manish Sisodia added that information about scheduled power cuts should be given on distributers' websites. The government is also planning to ask distributors to compensate people for outages over two hours.
With the mercury hitting the roof and the power demand soaring in Delhi, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal met the chief secretary and directed him to ask discoms to inform Delhiites about unscheduled power cuts through SMS.Arvind Kejriwal also wants the discoms to increase the staff at call centres handling public complaints and list scheduled power cuts on their websites.Discoms have also been directed to put up hoarding across the city displaying their complaint numbers for the benefit of power consumers.Discoms have been asked to mend the faults in the supply line if there is any and ensure a continuous supply. MORE HELP AT HANDAddressing a press conference, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia announced a series of steps the discoms have been asked to take which would give relief to Delhiites."Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, after analysing the power demand situation of past few days, has given directions to his chief secretary to ask all three discoms to increase the number of seats in their call centres," Manish Sisodia said.Among other steps, the power department has been asked to record, transcribe and analyse each complaint call for public satisfaction. Kejriwal has also asked for a daily report on unscheduled power cuts for the previous day.COMPENSATE CONSUMERSIn a significant measure, Manish Sisodia also talked of reviving an aborted clause in the Delhi Electricity Act which required discoms to pay compensation to the consumers for power-cuts exceeding two hours."The court had shot it down earlier, saying that we did not have approval of the Lt. Governor... I am meeting him (LG) tomorrow (Wednesday) and would talk to him about bringing it in practice," Sisodia said.With the capacity of producing 8,000 MW, Delhi has no shortage of power, Manish Sisodia assured, and said the national capital is only second to Mumbai in terms of sustained supply of electricity. (with inputs from IANS)ALSO READ:Heat wave kills 10 in Uttar Pradesh; simmering Delhi looks forward to rain, thunderstorm: 10 facts