by Administrator
10. September 2009 12:51
Chandigarh September 10:
The BJP will urge its coalition partner, the SAD, to give relief to the lowest category of domestic consumers who have been adversely affected by a 17.5 per cent increase in power tariff announced by the State Electricity Regulatory Commission yesterday.
The saffron party is also on way to making a “transparent” report on “where power is being spent”. Industries Minister Manoranjan Kalia has been entrusted with this responsibility following a closed-door meeting of the party this evening. State party president Rajinder Bhandari and senior leader Madan Mohan Mittal participated in it.
According to sources, the BJP has decided to first collect data about the total power availability in the state and also identify where it was being spent. The party noted that domestic consumers did not get sufficient power supply during the entire summer as well as monsoon period even though the PSEB tried its best to purchase power from all available sources.
Bhandari said the party was “concerned” at the burden put on domestic consumers, particularly the low-income group, which included those who consumed up to 100 units of power every month. He said the core committee of the party would take up this issue in all seriousness once data regarding the reasons why the power tariff hike was necessitated were put before it.
Mittal said the party would press for relief to the lower category of domestic consumers and approach Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal in this connection. He also claimed that the severe power shortage was largely due to the failure to increase power generation as well as limited buying opportunities due to drought-like conditions in other states also.
However, the sources said the BJP was likely to put forward the case that both urban and rural areas were equally affected by the hike in domestic tariff and that steps should be taken to subsidise part of the hike. The subsidy, they said, could offset the arrears due from domestic consumers from April 1 from which the power hike would be implemented with retrospective effect.