BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) on Wednesday demanded a white paper on funds spent for the development of power infrastructure during the last 10 years. Announcing that the Congress will gherao the office of the Gridco here on June 19 to protest the frequent power cuts and statement of energy minister Pratap Deb over the issue, OPCC president Sarat Pattanayak said that the minister should have resigned taking moral responsibility. But he is giving contradictory statements to divert the issue.
Referring to the claim of the state government that Rs 20,000 crore has been spent on power infrastructure development, the OPCC president said that the claim does not match the statement of the minister that the infrastructure is very weak in the state. He said that the white paper should have details of the expenditure in the power sector during the last 10 years.
Alleging that the government has sold itself completely to Tata Power, Pattanayak said that the people of the state are being exploited because of the high power tariff and frequent disruptions in power supply.
The OPCC president also lashed out at the Centre for the rise in the price of LPG and demanded that the price should be brought down to a level convenient for the poor and middle-class people. He said that LPG price has gone up by 260 per cent during the last 10 years.