It
is pitch dark outside. Chotu is riding
e-rickshaw through the heart of the city. His destination is clear, though it
may differ from that of the previous day’s has been operating this vehicle for
a couple of years. As Chotu could not
afford the pleasure of having a new one, he hired a repaired one offered to him by a Babu, residing near to his colony. Babu’s
men are punctual in collecting daily amount fixed as hiring charge,
irrespective of his trips. On lean days, he finds it difficult to meet two end
of life after paying hire charges, sundry expenses during his 10-12 hrs of
riding etc. His mother is living separately in another thatched attic and Chotu’s income is
the lone source of her income also. How he manages to pull on is a wonder to
many.
He has now reached the destination and slowly removed the almost
drained battery and moved to the other side of the park. The street lights are
burning as if causing hindrance to his work. He proceeded further to the corner
of park, near to a big banyan tree. There appeared a tall man from dark
covering his face, exchanged batteries and the cash for charging also. Returned
to the e-rickshaw, Chotu is
now moving to the opposite direction aiming his colony to garage the
vehicle.
This is a common
scene in Delhi after introducing e-rickshaw. There are more than 125000 e
rickshaws operating in the capital city of India but licensed one are just one
fifth of it. The charging facility is not adequate to cater the need of all e
rickshaws, which needs 7-10 units per day per e rickshaw. How majority of
others manages to function? The answer is Power Theft. There are thousands of Chotus in
Delhi making the situation alarming. Power theft is alarmingly high in Delhi. the cost of stolen Power is routinely passed to genuine electricity consumers who pay charges alarmly. Government and Discom should move in tandem to cub this social evil failing which the Discoms will be marching towards bankruptcy.
