File photo of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
In a bid to address load shedding woes in Delhi, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday announced the setting up of a helpline number where people can register their complaints of unscheduled power cuts through SMS.
He said explanations will be sought from power distribution companies for the long duration of power cuts and if their reasons are found unsatisfactory or unreasonable they will be penalised.
Delhi residents can SMS 'DL POWER' and then write their name, address, and complaint to 9223166166 to register their complaints of unscheduled power cuts.
The schedule of power cuts of an entire week has already been uploaded on the website www.delhisldc.org in which all the companies have put up information about scheduled power cuts in various parts of the city, he said.
Admitting that power cuts timings mentioned are of long durations, Mr Kejriwal said "I have also asked the power companies to provide us with the data of scheduled power cuts between January 1 to 10 last year and two years. Let's compare the two periods."
Taking forward his poll promise on putting a check on faulty power meters, the Chief Minister said people who believe their meters are faulty can submit a written complaint to the DC office in their area.
He said the government has ordered all Divisional Commissioners to accept the applications from residents about checking of their meters.
"As the number of applications is expected to be very high, the government will randomly select 10,000 applications and check the respective meters. If majority of the meters are found faulty, then every complaint will be looked into," he said.
He also said an independent agency will be set up in 2-3 months to inspect the meters.
DERC had last year initiated a process of empanelling a third party agency where any person could go and get their meter tested but it could not be completed due to various reasons.
Asked about the fate of those people charged with power theft cases as they illegally restored their power connections and have not paid the bill during Mr Kejriwal's pre-election campaign calling for non-cooperation movement, he said "people who haven't paid their electricity bills after March 23 last year will be considered and if there are charges of power theft against them, that will be forgiven."