The Samajwadi Party has announced to launch agitation to protest the hike in power tariff for the power loom industry.

The party said the hike in tariff had adversely affected a large number of weavers across the state and they were facing livelihood crisis.

The weavers in Meerut, led by local SP MLA Rafiq Ansari, have already started an agitation. The SP said the weavers were up in arms and had started agitation against the increased power tariff. Along with the loss of business due to the high tariff, the weavers were worried about the employment of lakhs of workers, it said.

In Meerut, under the aegis of the Weavers’ Association, thousands of weavers led by Rafiq Ansari took out a rally on Monday to protest against the increase in power tariff. The weavers marched to the office of the district magistrate and submitted a memorandum of demands. They threatened to march to Delhi if their demand for reduction in power tariff was not accepted by the government.

The weavers maintain that the hike in power tariff will ruin them and push them to the brink of starvation. The state government has increased the fee for small machines from Rs 65 to Rs 400 per month and for large machines from Rs 130 to Rs 800 per month.

Rafiq Ansari said the new tariff order had also imposed a cap on the connected load of a single connection.

There are more than 7,000 power loom connections in Meerut alone. More than one lakh machines are operational.

Rafiq Ansari, who marched with the protesters, said more than four to five lakh people were directly or indirectly involved in this business. He said if the problem was not resolved, weavers would march to Delhi.

The SP MLA said that during the Akhilesh Yadav regime, the government had fixed a flat rate of Rs 65 per month for small power looms (0.5 HP) and Rs 130 for 1 HP power looms.  He said in the SP rule, the weavers were allowed to use power load up to 150 kW, which enabled them to have multiple machines through a single connection.