** funds to finance power subsidy, Delhi government to HC
 

New Delhi, March 18 (IANS) The city government Tuesday informed the Delhi High Court that it has **t made any provision in the budget for funds to finance the subsidy on electricity for people in the capital as promised by the erstwhile AAP regime. Taking into **te the submissions of the Delhi government, a division bench of Acting Chief Justice B.D. Ahmed and Justice Siddharth Mridul also continued its stay on the Aam Aadmi Party government's decision to give 50 percent waiver on pending electricity bills of 24,036 consumers. The Arvind Kejriwal government had taken a decision on waiver of pending power bills of those consumers who had stopped payment of their dues during AAP's "bijli satyagraha". Filing an affidavit for the Delhi government, Madhu Sudan, deputy secretary of power, said: "The competent authority of the government has **t made any provision in the budget for release of funds for the purpose." "And in the absence of the availability of funds, therefore, in the present circumstances, it is **t possible to implement the decision of the cabinet for providing relief to the electricity consumers who stopped paying their bills anytime between October 2012 and May 2013 till December 2013." The bench was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by advocate Vivek Narayan Sharma, who also sought quashing the Delhi government's decision to close power theft cases registered against 2,508 consumers last year.

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