Notice to power discoms on electricity to farmers

New Delhi, May 15 (UNI) The Delhi High Court today issued notices to the private power distributers on the petition of Jan Sahayog Manch seeking direction to quash order of the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) to levy Rs 200 crore from the public to introduce High Voltage Distribution System(HVDS) for about 6000 farmers.

Justice Pradeep Nandrajog issued notices to power discoms-- BSES Rajdhani, BSES Yamuna, NDPL and Special Power Secretary Delhi Government, Ram N Tyagi and Jagvir Rana -- to file their replies to the allegation that the Rs 200 crore burden would be passed on to the common consumers who had nothing to do with the agriculture sector.

The decision of the DERC was illegal and arbitrary and if the impugned order was executed, the power tariff would go up in the capital, said the petition filed by Jan Sahayog Manch.

On November 18, 2005, the DERC issued order to the power companies to convert the low tension electricity connections to high density connections (theft-free) for tube-well connections to the farmers of Delhi.

As per the law, the cost to install the HVDS connections are shared in the ratio of 50:50 between the discoms and the developer who in turn recovers the money from the consumers. However, under the present circumstances since there is no developer involved, the burden on each farmer would be very high.

The DERC, therefore, ordered, The discoms are directed to include the expenditure as part of their ARR.'' The farmers would be liable to just the service line charges, development charges for the un-electrified area.

UNI PAT SB VC2032