Hundreds of Samajwadi Party workers holding lanterns and candles staged a demonstration in front of the Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC) here, pressing for fulfilment of various demands including stopping of hike in power tariff for 2019-20, free electricity for farmers and an inquiry into Cesu tender.
The activists shouted slogans like, ‘no power cut’, ‘stop power tariff hike’ , ‘reduce transmission loss to below 20 per cent, ‘probe Cesu tender’ and ‘ensure CAG audit in power companies’ during the demonstration.
Later, workers led by SP State president Rabi Behera met OERC Chairman UN Behera and submitted a memorandum in favor of their demands.
The memorandum, among other demands, mentioned that transmission loss in the State still stands at 37 per cent for which Discoms are losing around Rs 3,000 crore annually which they want to pass on to 77 lakh consumers. Hence, the Gridco has submitted an application to hike power tariff from present Rs 2.50 per unit to Rs 3.26 per unit, which is arbitrary and irrational. Besides, it sought free electricity for farmers and 50% rebate for BPL families.
“The discoms should be directed to reduce transmission loss so that there will be no power tariff hike from the coming financial,” read the memorandum. Among, others, party secretary Sudarshan Pradhan, youth leaders N Sambit Das and Pradip Mishra, women leaders Rita Pattnaik and Sabiri Behera, farmer leaders Bijay Behera and Guna Samantaray and student leader Rajyapriya Das were present.