Tenants to get benefit of low power tariff, says Arvind Kejriwal

New Delhi: With many tenants complaining that house owners were not passing on the electricity subsidy benefits to them, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday asked power minister Satyendar Jain to resolve the tenants’ grievances over the government’s power subsidy scheme. 

In a letter to Mr Jain, the chief minister asked him to prepare a roadmap for providing benefit of subsidy to “each and every tenant,” residing in the capital.

The move comes after Mr Kejriwal received complaints during public hearings that in several cases, the landlords do not pass on the subsidy benefit to the tenants and that they are not getting the same. Under the power subsidy scheme, the Delhi government provides 50 per cent subsidy on electricity tariffs up to 400 units on domestic electricity connections for all residents of Delhi.

“The chief minister, in his letter, has said, “Rationalising the electricity consumption rates has been done so as to slash the burden of earlier enhanced rates on each consumer,” the government said in a statement. 

He also asked the power minister to take appropriate steps so that no domestic electricity consumer be deprived of the relief being provided by the government on electricity tariffs. 

Mr Kejriwal told the minister to submit a proposal for providing the benefit of subsidy to “each and every tenant” residing in Delhi, the statement said.  

This will help in solving the problems of the tenants in the city who are not receiving the benefit of the much-lauded government’s scheme, Mr Kejriwal said. 

The Aam Aadmi Party government had first introduced a 50 per cent subsidy for domestic consumers consuming up to 400 units per month in December 2013, and had restored it once again from February 2015 onwards when the AAP had come back to the power. The residents of the city have since February 14, 2015 been getting this relief on their electricity bills.