BHUBANESWAR: The BJP on Tuesday staged demonstration in front of the office of the Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC) protesting power tariff hike.The protest led by BJP Bhubaneswar district unit president Babu Singh attacked the State government for allowing the tariff hike when the people are struggling to cope with the economic hardship they faced due to the lockdown.
Dubbing the power tariff hike of 30 paise per unit as anti-people, Singh said the commission has miserably failed to protect the interest of the consumers. There is no need for tariff hike as Gridco has not been able to recover arrear dues to the tune of Rs 6000 crore from the four distribution companies. Threatening to intensify agitation till OERC rolled back the hike, Singh said BJP will gherao the 8 sub-division offices of Tata Power owned central utility to force the State government to direct OERC to rescind the tariff order.
Coming down heavily on OERC for showing undue favour to Tata Power, State BJP spokesperson Golak Mohaptra said the commission has penalised the consumers for the inefficiency of the distribution utilities which have failed to recover pending power bills of around Rs 2,949.66 crore from 26 big industries in the State.
Information provided by the State government to the Assembly said that Gridco is selling power to outside agencies at Rs 3.21 per unit while it is buying power at Rs 3.81 per unit. How can OERC justify the loss of 60 paise per unit by Gridco while allowing a hike in the bulk supply price, he wondered.
Cong announces dharna
Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) on Tuesday threatened a State-wide agitation if the power tariff hike is not rolled back within the next seven days. Announcing the decision, OPCC president Niranjan Patnaik said that on the first day, demonstrations and four hour dharna will be held in front of offices of the superintending engineers and executive engineers at the district headquarter towns. On the second day, four hour dharna will held in front of power department offices at the block headquarters. Patnaik announced that demonstration will be held in front of the office of OERC on the third day demanding roll back of tariff hike. Stating that OERC has allowed power tariff hike twice during last one year, Patnaik demanded that the State government should move the Orissa High Court to obtain a stay on the power tariff hike as a consumer.