In a meeting held on Sunday afternoon, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, who also holds the portfolio for power, conveyed to BSES Chairman Lalit Jalan that BSES has to treat the present power crisis as an “internal emergency”.

Dikshit had summoned Jalan to ask him to intervene personally and ensure that the Capital tides over the crisis as soon as possible. The absence of any representative from the other Delhi discom, NDPL, signified that the government is putting the onus of the problem on BSES.

Senior officials in the power department revealed that the BSES had a shortfall of nearly 350 MW on Saturday night and did not move quickly enough to resolve the issue. “The NDPL had a shortfall of 50 MW and bought power at Rs 11.50 per unit. The BSES too could have availed of this chance but did not do so,” said a senior official. This led to large scale powercuts in West Delhi, where areas like Janakpuri and Uttam Nagar did not have electricity from 11pm to 5 am. The NDPL supplies power to North and Northeast Delhi, the BSES to East, West and South Delhi.

Speaking to Newsline after the meeting, Dikshit said: “Most of the complaints are emerging from areas serviced by BSES and it has been observed that their response to grievances is callous and slow. The NDPL is functioning as per schedule. Now whatever tie-ups BSES had made for the summer, almost 700 MW did not come through. I have conveyed to BSES that something is wrong with their internal set-up and they need to rectify the problem within the next four days.”

... contd.