Sheila's Delhi is sinking, says CAG report

Updated: Wednesday, April 3, 2013, 14:16 [IST]

New Delhi, April 3: Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, who is trying to ignore the demands of Aam Aadmi Party's Arvind Kejriwal over electricity and water rates, the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) is too damning to be dismissed as a political campaign.

Delhi is going to have assembly elections this year and Dikshit is aiming for record fourth term. However, the report was not a good birthday gift for the Delhi chief minister. Sheila Dikshit turned 75 years on March 31.

The CAG report for the year ended March 2012 was tabled in the Delhi assembly yesterday and it is an indictment of Delhi government's departments and public utilities.

Not one department has been spared - healthcare, transport, power, water and sewage and Dikshit's favourite infrastructure projects - have all been either mismanaged or missed the target. The report also documents loss of revenue to the tune of Rs 2700 crore.

It says, due to under-assessment and faulty permission of exemption and other irregularities has resulted in revenue shortfall of nearly Rs.2,310.14 crore. The department responsible for such a mess is the trade and taxes department.
Supporting the contention of Kejriwal the CAG report says the Delhi Transco Limited (DTL), a Delhi government company in-charge of power, has not been able to recover an amount of Rs 754.83 crore as transmission charge from BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd (BRPL ) and BSES Yamuna Power Ltd (BYPL).

The audit report found DTL to have extended a rebate of Rs 6.81 crore to power distribution companies on wheeling power (transmission costs) which was not allowed by Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC).

The CAG also found BRPL and BYPL to be irregular in their payments of wheeling charges from October 2010 onwards. An amount of Rs.754.83 crore was pending for recovery from them as on December 15, 2012.

On water, it says that 28.4 percent in national capital do not getting piped water. Even where there is supply, the Delhi Jal Board has lost Rs 3,950 crore because of short billing.

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