Delhi govt orders CAG audit of private power companies

 

Arvind Kejriwal

Fulfilling yet another election promise of the Aam Aadmi Party, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday said the audit of power companies in the national capital will begin on January 2.

"We have ordered an audit of the private power distribution companies. The CAG has said it will do the audit," the chief minister said after a meeting of the Cabinet which took the decision on audit.

Kejriwal said the Lt Governor's order on the audit of the companies will go to the CAG tomorrow. "From tomorrow, the audit will begin," he said.

Referring to the previous Congress government, Kejriwal said, "We achieved in four days what previous government couldn't do in four years."

He further added, he had requested CAG Shashi Kant Sharma to do the audit in three months but Sharma said it depends on the cooperation of power distribution companies.

Asked what were the objections raised by the power distribution companies, Kejriwal said there was no reason for not getting their accounts audited.

"Nobody has given any reason why there should not be an audit," he said adding the auditing will cover from the days the power distribution was privatised.

He also rejected the view that the matter was subjudiced and the decision cannot be taken.

"Previous government has been indulging in politics due to court case," he said.

On complaints about the defective quality of power meters, the Chief Minister said the government would approach IIT Delhi and Delhi College of Engineering for suggestion to improve the quality of meters.

Earlier, the chief minister agreed that slashing electricity rates through subsidy was not a sustainable solution.

The Delhi chief minister had on Tuesday met the CAG to seek an audit of three power distribution companies in the capital - Reliance companies BSES, BSES Rajdhani (BRPL) and BSES Yamuna (BYPL).