The Samajwadi Party on Saturday submitted a memorandum to OERC Chairman UN Behera against the Gridco’s proposal for power tariff hike for meeting its annual revenue requirement of Rs 172 crore.
A six-member delegation led by party’s State president Rabi Behera has submitted a six-point charter of demands to OERC. They said there is no justification to hike power tariff in an electricity producing State like Odisha. They alleged that undeclared power cut is happening and the ATC loss is still at 30 to 35 per cent due to the inefficiency and corruption by the distribution companies. Before taking of the Gridco’s power tariff hike proposal, the OERC should direct the Government to publish a whitepaper on the annual loss and profit of the discoms. The discoms should be subjected to energy audit and CAG audit. The Government should collect revenues “looted” by the Discoms in the past. The OERC Chairman assured the delegation he would take a rational decision on power tariff proposal as per law, said Behera. General secretary Sudarshan Pradhan, treasurer Sanjay Nayak, Anjusa Das, Rita Pattnaik and Bireswar Gati were part of the delegation.
