New Delhi, June 26
Delhiites will have to shell out more on power bills from July. The Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) today announced an overall hike of 20.87 per cent in the tariff.

The hike, which has been introduced in all categories, including domestic and industrial, will be effective from July 1. The steep hike will see domestic power price go up by 24 per cent, commercial by 19.5 per cent and industrial by 20.2 per cent, making the overall hike as 20.87 per cent.

As per the new domestic consumption rates, till 200 units, the price per unit will be Rs 3.70 per unit, from 200-400 units, Rs 4.80 per unit and for 400 units and above, it will be Rs 6.40 per unit.

The commission has also imposed a fuel surcharge of 8 per cent on three power distribution companies (discoms)- Tata Delhi Power, BSES Rajdhani and BSES Yamuna-- while exempting the New Delhi Municipal Council. The surcharge will put further burden on the people served by the three discoms.

Last year, the DERC had allowed the discoms to raise the tariff by 22 per cent, but the firms had claimed that it was not enough to cover their losses of Rs 6,000 crore.

Meanwhile assuring the consumers, DERC chairman PD Sudhakar said there won't be another hike in prices of power in the next two to three years.

As expected, the resident welfare associations (RWAs) of the city have opposed the hike and demanded the resignation of Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit for taking the side of the discoms.

"The DERC has been set up to look into the problems of the consumers, but it seems, the commission and the government are working for the benefits of the discoms. The commission increases the power tariff on the basis of false reports submitted by the discoms," said Anil Bajpai, president, RWA Federation, Delhi East.

The DERC had increased power tariff by 22 per cent in August 2011 and then again by 5 per cent in February followed by another 2 per cent in May this year.

New Delhi, June 26
On the first day of admissions after Delhi University (DU) declared its first cutoffs, colleges witnessed maximum rush for humanities courses today. Not many takers for science turned up while commerce also registered a comparatively less turnout than last year, except Sri Ram College for Commerce (SRCC) which generally closes admissions on the first list itself.

"At SRCC, 223 students enrolled for BCom (hons) against 501 seats. In BA economics, we completed 55 admissions against 123 seats," said SRCC principal PC Jain.

College principals today termed the response "lukewarm" or moderate at large, admitting that the reason may have been the high cutoffs. However, they remained hopeful about better figures over the next two days.

At Hindu College, which declared the highest BCom cutoffs for science students at 99.25%, only four students turned up for eco (hons) and two for BCom (hons).

Last year, the rush was due to the absence of pre-admission forms, said Ramjas College principal Rajendra Prasad. He said that 137 registrations took place today. Lady Shri Ram College witnessed maximum rush for English, political science, psychology and history.

At Hansraj, 150 students were registered. Fifty students for BCom (hons) against 200 seats. In eco (hons), 17 admissions were done. In arts stream, 90 to 95 and in science stream, 55 to 60 admissions were done. We expect the numbers to rise," said principal BK Kwatra.

"At Miranda House, 23% of the total seats were taken. The response to science courses was not good . Maximum aspirants turned up for geography, sociology,political science," said principal Pratibha Jolly.