Electricity Dept’s move to give jolt to private schools

Rajinder Nagarkoti

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 13

The Chandigarh Electricity Department, in its power tariff hike petition submitted before the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC), has proposed to change the slab of private schools from domestic to commercial.

In its petition, the department has submitted that the domestic tariff will be applicable to only government and government-aided educational institutions. The petition states, “The domestic tariff will be applicable to government and government-aided educational institutions such as schools, colleges, universities, hostels, canteens, and residential quarters/hostels attached to educational institutions.”

Earlier, private educational institutions were also under the domestic tariff category.

The petition states, “Non-residential supply (also called commercial tariff) will be applicable to private schools/colleges, coaching institutes and research institutes (other than those

run/aided by the Chandigarh Administration).

There are around 90 private schools and 10 private colleges in the city. A majority of the private colleges are aided by the government whereas only seven schools are aided by the government in the city. Most of the schools and colleges use over 400 units of power. The burden of the inflated bills is likely to be passed on to the parents.

A senior official of the UT Administration said last year, the JERC had directed the Electricity Department to charge the commercial tariff from private educational institutions. However, there was a technical error in the order due to which the department did not charge the commercial tariff from schools. The last JERC order was to charge the domestic tariff from government-recognised institutions. In the city, all private schools and colleges were also recognised by the government. The JERC should have used the word government aided instead of government recognised. The Electricity Department had now moved the JERC stating that only government-aided schools would come under the domestic power tariff slab, he said. The Electricity Department would organise a public hearing session on March 18, where the JERC would hear objections submitted by city residents on the power tariff hike petition, the official said.
HS Mamik, president of the Independent Schools Association, Chandigarh, said with such a proposal, the UT Administration was violating the electricity rules. Private schools always come under the domestic tariff slab. The association would submit their objections against the UT’s proposal before the JERC, he said.
He said on an average, a private schools was paying nearly Rs 1 lakh per month as the electricity charges. He said if the Administration imposed the commercial tariff, the electricity bills of private schools were likely to increase by around Rs 25,000. The increase in power tariff could further lead to a hike in the school fee, he said.
Department seeks list of
aided schools, colleges
The Electricity Department has written to the Education Department to provide a list of government-aided schools and colleges.