Alleging loot in the cover of different heads by the Madhya Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (MPERC) the delegations of opposition parties in Madhya Pradesh, the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) , reached the public hearing of MPERC and submitted their suggestions in form of memorandum.
The Congress delegation was led by state Congress general secretary and Bhopal District Congress Committee president PC Sharma and handed over a memorandum demanding to reduce fix charge, fuel charge, meter rent, duty charge and other charges to provide relief to the consumers.
The Congress said in its memorandum that the consumers are provided 4 per cent interest on the security deposit while 12 per cent surcharge is levied over them this surcharge should be reduced to 4 per cent besides the announcement made by the BJP in its 2013 assembly election manifesto that power rates would not be hiked should be followed and the recover done every year in the name of security deposit in the months of April, May and June should also be stopped immediately and government provides relaxations periodically to the slum power users even after that the dues left should also be recovered in installments.
While the AAP delegation that was led by party’s state convener Alok Agarwal not only strongly opposed any hike in the existing power rates but demanded to reduce them stating that the power charges in the state are already higher than other states.
The AAP in its memorandum said that the AAP strongly oppose the proposed 11 per cent hike in electricity rates because the power charges in Madhya Pradesh are already higher than the other states hence we demand that at the place of hiking the power charges they should be reduced in the state. The AAP holding mismanagement and corruption in the power companies responsible for costly electricity in the state said in its memorandum that instead of rising power rates the MPERC should focus on stopping corruption and mismanagement so that it could easily reduce the power cost.