Monday, July 03, 2006

Monsoon and electricity: where are they?

While Mumbai and some other places has been experiencing deluge, the clouds have simply vanished from the Delhi sky. There has been no respite from humidity though. To add matter worse, power situation has suddenly detoritated and even my locaility, which till now had been spared of the worst, had witnessed several powercuts over last two days. The Delhi govt. had tried selling tomatoes to bring down the cost, and is again proposing to sell Mung Dal at Rs.38/- per kilo in 70 places in Delhi. However despite scarcity, power is going to be dearer soon. The TOI today ran a news item on the proposed hike in power tariff by the Delhi Govt. It looks so simple in theory --- price is determined by demand and supply.
Will a hike will reduce demand? On my trip to the local mandi last evening, I was wondered as to how the market was glittering in halogen lamps. How the the vegetable vendors on both side, numbering roughly 50 or so, of the road has managed electricity? No wonder, it is free for them, courtsey the ingenious technique of drwaing power from the power line above using a hook. All these are happening right under the nose of BSES and police. As is with income tax, a hike in rate is going to hit hard only those who has no way to steal electricity and pays bills honestly. But who cares for them. For the lawmakers, it is the votebank which is more important than anything else. Whether there is monsoon or not, whether there is electricity or not, they always get opportunities to play politics.

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