Andhra Pradesh MLAs study power distribution in Delhi

New Delhi, Aug 18 (UNI) The restructuring of the power sector in Delhi may have come under flak from several quarters but the privatisation of power distribution has led legislators from the state of Andhra Pradesh to take a ''leaf out of its book''.

The Committee of Public Undertakings of Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly, led by its Chairman N Uttam Kumar Reddy, MLA, today visited Delhi Transco Ltd to study the restructured power sector of Delhi.

The Committee, having eight MLAs and other senior officers of the Andhra Pradesh Government, had interaction with the officers of various power entities of Delhi (viz. Delhi Transco Ltd, Indraprastha Power Generation Company Ltd, NDPL and BSES).

The Committee Members showed keen interest in the distribution sector of power and how it was being managed by private distribution companies.

The other areas of keen interest for the committee were tariff determination, collections, earnings and other related matter concerning distribution companies.

Principal Secretary (Power) and CMD Delhi Transco Limited (DTL) Rakesh Mehta, who moderated the meeting, told the committee that the privatisation of distribution of power in Delhi had been successful and the government had tried to make distribution companies accountable to the public. The Government had notified Performance Standards to ensure quality services to the consumers.

Mr Mehta further added that the government was setting up Office of Consumer Advocate to represent the interest of consumers in courts and various other forums. The Committee Members specifically wanted to know how the interests of the employees have been protected.

They also wanted to know the comparison between the privatisation in Orissa and Delhi .

Mr Mehta clarified the setbacks of the Orissa model and how the Delhi case was different from it.

The benefits of public-private partnership in the distribution system and the concerns of consumers were discussed in the meeting.

Present on the occasion were MD, IPGCL P K Chakraborty, Director (Operations) DTL S R Sethi, Director (HR) DTL Raj K Saxena and CEO of BRPL Ajay Dhagat.

UNI