Kejriwal controls DERC like 'puppet', says Congress' Haroon Yusuf

The Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee working president Haroon Yusuf on Wednesday took a dig at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal by accusing him of "controlling the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission like a puppet" and said that the DERC had become a "one-member organisation".

New Delhi: Hitting out at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over a hike in the power tariff, Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee working president Haroon Yusuf on Wednesday accused the Aam Aadmi party chief of "controlling the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission like a puppet".

Yusuf's comments came in the backdrop of the Congress party abstaining from a public hearing held on Wednesday to discuss the power tariff hike.

The Congress leader said that the meeting was reduced to a shadow boxing between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janta Party to fool people, who were represented by the Residents' Welfare Associations, read a statement issued Yusuf.

Taking a dig at the DERC, Yusuf said that the Commission had become a "one-member organisation". He said that the DERC should comprise of three members, but for the past two years, it has been functioning with just one member, who is the chairman of the power regulatory body.

The statement further read that the Delhi government has not bothered to fill the two vacant posts of members in the DERC, which shows the lack of interest of the AAP government in the affairs of the power regulatory body.

The Congress leader reiterated the party's demand that the hiked fixed charges should be rolled back immediately and the crores collected on this head should be either returned to power consumers or adjusted in the power bills.

The Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee has been demanding that Rs. 5,040 crore amount collected by the power companies in fixed charges should either be returned to the consumers or no power tariff should be charged from the consumers for the next six months.

Yusuf also said that the fixed charges were hiked six times more and pension funds at the rate of 3.8 per cent were illegally collected from the power consumers though according to the tripartite agreement with the power distribution companies, it was the responsibility of the DISCOMS to contribute to the pension funds.

He further demanded that the pension funds should be rolled back and the money collected from the consumers on this head should be returned to the consumers.
When a delegation, under the leadership of DPCC president Sheila Dikshit, who was the Chief

Minister of Delhi for 15 years, met Kejriwal at his residence on June 12, it had demanded that the crores collected from the power consumers on the fixed charges head should either be returned to the public, or adjusted in the power bills, the Congress leader revealed.

The DPCC delegation included Yusuf, other working presidents Rajesh Lilothia and Devender Yadav, former Delhi ministers Ramakant Goswami and Kiran Walia, spokespersons Jitender Kumar Kochar and Harnam Singh.