Victims of electrical accidents in the city may soon get compensation of up to ₹5 lakh from power utilities, with the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) issuing draft regulations on a reparation scheme for such cases on Thursday. DERC officials said that this is the first time that the city will have a mandatory compensation scheme in place.
According to the draft regulations, placed in the public domain for a month for comments, the compensation payable for loss of human life or more than 60% disability as a result of an electrical accident will be ₹5,00,000 per person. The compensation will be ₹1,00,000 per person in case of disability between 40% and 60%. Further, subject to production of a government hospital bill, power utilities will need to pay ₹25,000 if a person requires hospitalisation for over a week, and ₹10,000 if the period less than a week. Officials said the compensation slab will become the norm in a month.
The draft regulations come nearly five years after the Delhi high court in December 2016 ruled that power utilities have to compensate the kin of victims in electrocution cases if it was established that there were “lapses” on their part in maintaining prescribed safety measures.
