Dear
Friends,
We
have seen a paradigm shift in the recent years especially in the way issues
related to persons with disabilities are looked at. Call it a result of an
awareness in the world about disability
or a very active disability community in India but we see that things are
changing and many positive initiatives are in pipeline.
However,
as an activist, I feel the whole focus
of disability community and hence the government is more in to laws specific to
disabilities such as the Disabilities Act or the National Trust Act or the
Rehabilitation Council of India Act or Mental Health Act etc. It is an irony that several codes,
enactments, rules not directly dealing with disabilities continue to use unacceptable
and undignified terminologies to refer to persosn with disabilities and also
discriminate against certain disabilities.
One such example that has come to my notice recently is the
Supply Code and Performance Standards
Regulations, 2007 (hereinafter referred to as “the Regulation”) issued by the Electricity Regulatory
Commission, in exercise of the
powers conferred on it by section 50 of the Electricity Act 2003, read with
sections 57, 86 and 181 of the said Act.
The
Regulation in Chapter II, Para 4 a (vii) provides domestic connections to
organisations working for the welfare and education of persons with
disabilities. However it uses very undignified and archaic language as below:
Extract of DERC Supply Code and
Performance Standards Regulations, 2007
(to read the full Regulation please click here: SC and PS Regulations 2007)
(to read the full Regulation please click here: SC and PS Regulations 2007)
“4.
Classification of Supply The Voltage of
Supply and number of phases shall be
determined by the Licensee
depending on the Contract Demand /
Sanctioned Load of the Consumer.
(i)Domestic Connection
a. Connections under this category are provided for consumers as specified below:
(i) Residential consumers
(ii) Hostels of recognized/aided institutions of Municipal Corporation of
Delhi or Govt. of the NCT of Delhi.
(iii) Staircase lighting in residential flats separately
metered
(iv) Compound lighting, lifts and water pumps etc., for
drinking water supply and fire fighting
equipment in residential complexes.
(v) Dispensary/Hospitals/Public Libraries/School/Working
Women’s Hostel/ Orphanage/ Charitable
homes run by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi or the Government of the NCT of
Delhi.
(vi) Small Health Centers approved by the Department of
Health, Government of NCT of Delhi for
providing Charitable Services only.
(vii) Recognized
Centers for welfare of blind, deaf and dumb,
spastic children, physically handicapped persons as approved by the Government of NCT of Delhi.
(viii) Places of worship.
(ix) Cheshire homes/orphanage.
(x) Electric crematoriums”
The
said erroneous construction clearly uses undignified language and while doing so
also misses certain disabilities such
Mental Retardation, Mental Illness, Low Vision, Leprosy cured, Children with
Multiple Disabilities, Children with Autism and several such disabilities which
have been included in The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities,
Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act 1995 and The National Trust
for the Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation
& Multiple Disabilities Act 1999.
Such
a regulation is susceptible to subjective interpretation and this is proving to
be true in case of Delhi based organisation, Sahan Centre for Special Education
(Mental Retardation) run by Federation for the Welfare of the Mentally Retarded
(India). Federation receives
grant-in-aid from the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment,Govt of
India.
Now
the officials of the Electric companies i.e. BSES are refusing to grant the Electricity
supply under domestic category to those institution/schools/NGOs who are
working with children with mental retardation and infact all other
disabilities which are not indicated in
the Regulations. Also they insist that the institution should be recognised by
Govt of NCT of Delhi. They refuse to accept an NGO for domestic connection even
if it is recognised by Govt. of India and getting grants from them!
Such
a fallacious reading of the regulation is entirely illegal and illogical. The
erstwhile DESU (Delhi Electricity Suppy Undertaking ) did not make such a
distinction and the NGOs working with children with Mental Retardation were also given the domestic connection as per the information received. However the
BSES has started charging them the commercial rate for the electric supply.
The
issue has been taken up with the DERC and Govt. of Delhi. Since the Regulation
is under revision, this is high time that appropriate corrections are made in
the DERC Regulation as above to inlcude all disabilities to remove
subjectivities that may lead to such situations.
I
hope the DERC and Govt. of NCT of Delhi would take appropriate action in this
regard.
Regards
Subhash
Chandra Vashishth