[ad_1]
This summer has been harsh for 40-year-old Amarjeet Chauhan, a footwear vendor who sells his merchandise on a pavement in northeast Delhi’s Sonia Vihar, and his family of six. Chauhan had to pay monthly power bills ranging from ₹400 to ₹1,200 between April and August for his two-room rented accommodation, which has two ceiling fans, two bulbs, a tube light, an old television set, and a small refrigerator.
They cannot avail of government waivers such as not having to pay anything for up to 200 units a month, because they do not have a separate power connection, but a sub-meter instead.
The entire building, which has five more families renting homes, has one power connection, with each household equipped with a sub-meter. While the owner of the house pays the power bill at the government subsidised tariff, he assesses the consumption of each tenant household and charges ₹9 per unit from each of them– more than double the rate which discoms charge.
“With incomes going down because of the pandemic, it was difficult to pay electricity bills. It would have been a big relief if we could have availed of the government subsidies and waivers,” said Chauhan’s wife Renuka, who works as a domestic help.
A government scheme launched in September 22, 2019 allowed families, such as Chauhans — living as tenants with no separate power connection — to install proper electricity meters and avail of subsidies.
Delhi has at least 4.9 million domestic power consumers.
To install separate electric meters, the homeowners and tenants have to be in agreement. Many landlords often do not agree for a range of reasons beyond just additional income.
“We live in an unauthorised colony. Ownership documents of properties here are not registered, legally. Having more than one power connection for one house can lead to legal complications in future,” said Balram Tyagi, a property dealer based in north Delhi’s Burari, who has five tenants in his own building.
As the population in Delhi increased, hundreds of unplanned and illegal colonies mushroomed across the city. Despite some of them being regularised, Delhi still has around 1,900 such colonies on paper and at least five million people — roughly 25% of the city’s population – stay in these colonies.
Akhil Monga, a landlord based in northwest Delhi’s Shalimar Bagh, said, “When the tenants agree to pay rent, they also give their consent to pay power charges mentioned in the rent agreement. That way, it is legitimate income for the owner.”
In two years of the government launching the scheme of separate electricity meters for tenants, only 1,019 tenants have installed meters, show government records. However, according to the government’s socio-economic survey released in 2020, Delhi has around 3.6 million households, roughly one-third of which occupy rented accommodations.
“There is not much we can do if the owner of the house disagrees,” said Manik Kumar, a sanitation worker who lives with his family in south-east Delhi’s Tigri neighbourhood. “In our case, we tried convincing the owner of the house twice. He did not agree and told us that we could look for another house if we had a problem,” said Kumar
Several tenants said that even though their landlords agreed, they found the one-time payment of ₹6,000 too high in the light of adverse economic impact of the pandemic. Out of ₹6,000, half the amount is security deposit, which is refundable, and the other half is a non-refundable installation charge.
Tenants who can avail of the government’s subsidised power rates said it is a big relief, especially amid a pandemic. “None of us had work for several months last year. Thankfully, we did not have to pay any power bills… In most months, we manage to keep the total monthly consumption below 200 units and avail of the 100% subsidy because we have a separate meter,” said Rakesh Singh, who lives with his wife and 10-year-old son in a rented accommodation at a slum in Deoli.
A senior government official said: “The government has reduced paperwork and compliances to a minimum. A meter can be installed within 24 hours. But the government or discoms cannot get into disputes.”
[ad_2]
Source link
