Cong to oppose power tariff hike

Raipur, May 15, 2013

Hitting at the government on proposed power tariff hike and terming it anti-people the Congress on Wednesday said it would strongly oppose any such move. 

“The power companies are at loss due to grafts prevailed in the system and government’s mismanagement. Now, the government wants to compensate the loss by increasing power tariff. The congress will not tolerate this move and will protest it at the public hearing to be conducted by Chhattisgarh state electricity regulatory commission (CSERC) on power tariff hike on Thursday,” said state Congress president Nandkumar Patel and CLP leader Ravindra Choubey. 

They said the government did not have any logical reason for increasing the power tariff. “Despite the state having ample coal and water for power generation, how the power companies are running at loss,” they asked.

They indicated that the power companies incurred loss of Rs 1567 crore because it gave mining and exploration job of Parsa coal block to Adani group whose owner is close to Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi. They said the Centre had allocated the coal block to the power companies for personal use. 

“The Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) report for the financial year 2012-13 too indicates of massive grafts and scams in energy department. Now, the government wants to put the burden of these scams on the common man,” they added.

“Chhattisgarh is one of the highest power generating states. It has PSUs like National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC). It has maximum number of private power plants. The people of the state have not only given their agricultural lands to private players for establishment of their power plants but are also compelled to live in polluted environment. Nonetheless, they are getting electricity at inordinate rate,” they said.

“The government has hiked power tariff twice in last couple of months. Eight months back, it hiked electricity rate by 60-100%. On pretext of rise in coal prices, just two months back it again increased power tariff by Rs 15-20 paise per unit on name of variable cost adjustment (VCA). Meanwhile, it also added different taxes on power bills. Even the CAG had pointed out that the government had imposed double tax to the tune of Rs 250 crore on the power consumers,” they added. 

They said the Congress would take the matter to streets and launch massive protest movement against it.