Out of jail, Kejriwal slams Sheila, Khurshid

New Delhi, October 13 India Against Corruption (IAC) activist Arvind Kejriwal, who, along with his associates, is supporting the differently abled activists in their demand for Salman Khurshid's dismissal, today continued his attack on the Sheila Dikshit government for the inflated powder bills. IAC activist Arvind Kejriwal eats with his supporters after being released from Bawana Jail. Tribune photo: Mukesh Aggarwal

Power tariff: BJP files complaint against CM
New Delhi, October 13
The BJP today lodged a complaint at the Indraprastha police station against Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, two members of the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) and other officials for preventing the authorities concerned from decreasing power tariff.

Out of jail, Kejriwal slams Sheila, Khurshid
Ananya Panda
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 13
India Against Corruption (IAC) activist Arvind Kejriwal, who, along with his associates, is supporting the differently abled activists in their demand for Salman Khurshid's dismissal, today continued his attack on the Sheila Dikshit government for the inflated powder bills.

After last night's detention at Bawana Jail, the atmosphere at Parliament Street was gradually building up and supporters were seen waving Tricolours and sloganeering against Khurshid and the Congress.

He also accused the Delhi police of harassing the protesters with many among the physically challenged and IAC activists being manhandled. "Some of those protesting were beaten up and one person who had to be taken to hospital ," said Kejriwal.

He also targeted the BJP for its opportunistic politics. "We are not the team B of the BJP. The BJP is our team B, as they follow us on all issues," Arvind said.

Among the crowd at Parliament Street, there were many who were protesting against hiked power tariff. Pointing out at a nexus between the government and the discoms, MP Solanki, a resident of Nagloi, said, "What is shocking that in summer when ACs use to be on, I got a bill of Rs 4,500 for consumption of 800 units and this time for 450 units I have received a bill of Rs 4,500." Such discrepancies were not limited to power as seen by IP Sharma, a retired government employee residing in Mahavir Nagar, who received water bill of Rs 600 in which the service tax alone was Rs 400. Even people who live in slums being billed as high as Rs 15,000,'' he said.

The minister in Congress didn't even spare the disabled. They can go to any extent to fill their pockets, said one of the protestors.

Power tariff: BJP files complaint against CM
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 13
The BJP today lodged a complaint at the Indraprastha police station against Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, two members of the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) and other officials for preventing the authorities concerned from decreasing power tariff.

In the leadership of Delhi unit chief of the BJP Vijender Gupta, a delegation of party leaders today filed a complaint against the Chief Minister, energy secretary S.M. Ali, Reliance Power CEO Jairam Prasad Chalsani, DERC members A.R. Sethi, Shyam Vadhera and top officials of all three power companies. The complainant is Abhey Verma.

Verma said that the DERC was to fix the tariff for 2010-11 for all three discoms. The then DERC chairman Brijender Singh had decided to reduce the power tariff by 23 per cent. The new reduced power tariff order was to be issued by the DERC chairman on May 5, 2010. In the meantime, under Section 108 of Electricity Act, the Delhi government directed the DERC not to implement the order of tariff reduction.

This case remained pending for about a year among the court, DERC, Delhi government and the discoms. The Delhi High Court also sought the opinion of legal experts in this case who advised that the government had no power to issue directions to the DERC. But by that time the then chairman of the DERC was retired and P.D. Sudhakar took charge. Sudhakar had issued orders to increase power tariff by 22 per cent in place of cut in it.

Five held for crude oil theft
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 13
The police today claimed to have arrested five men for allegedly stealing crude oil from pipelines of oil firms. The accused have been identified as Mohammad Samid, Bishan Singh, alias Bishnu, Mukesh Kumar Gupta, Ashok Kumar Jain, Sunil Tiwari and Daddu. Gupta and Jain were receivers of the stolen oil.

They confessed to their crime. Samid hails from Samastipur, Bihar. His gang steals crude oil from the pipelines of the oil companies. They used to run a "dhaba" on rent situated in front of a pipeline of oil companies. One night, they dug a hole in that pipeline with the help of a horizontal drilling device and fixed a valve in the hole. From that valve they connected a pipe and filled a tanker parked nearby. And after filling the tanker, they unplugged the pipe from the valve and covered it with sand for reuse.

The gang used to do the same and later sell the oil with the help of Jain and Gupta to Dinesh Kumar Shukla in Punjabi Bagh, Delhi and NCR. Shukla is an active member of the gang and also provided the tanker to the gang. They recently repainted the tanker to hide the identity of the vehicle.

In 2010, the gang under the leadership of Shamsher Singh dug a 170-feet tunnel from a rented godown to an Indian Oil Company pipeline in Jhajjar, Haryana and fixed a plastic pipe for stealing oil. The plastic pipe which passed through agricultural land got damaged during cultivation and crude oil started flowing on in the field. The gang fled the godown when they came to know about this incident.