The Delhi Chief Secretary has been directed by a court here to file a report along with a solution to the “desperate” problem of lack of authorised recharging stations for e-rickshaws to stop electricity theft in the national Capital.
Additional Sessions Judge Swarana Kanta Sharma pulled up the Power Secretary of Delhi, who was earlier asked to file a compliance report on the steps taken to prepare modalities to create legal recharging stations for e-rickshaws, “... in this case, it is felt that people are being forced to commit theft of electricity due to non-availability of re-charging stations. Charging of e-rickshaws by stealing electricity or re-charging batteries from domestic connection is not justifiable.
“It will, therefore, be in interest of all that instead of shifting the burden and informing the court that it will take long to make policy for creating such stations or addressing this problem, a solution should be found at the earliest by all departments by working on priority, co-operating with each other so as to stop this menace instead of discussing the concurrent list under which the electricity falls or shifting burden from one department to the other,” the court said. It also said desperate problems need desperate solutions and “this menace is one such desperate problem”.
The Power Secretary’s counsel said that policy formation on providing recharging stations of e-rickshaws involves several departments and it will take some time to frame permanent policy after holding discussion with them.