Senior BJP leader Bijay Mohapatra on Sunday hit out at Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for waiving electricity duty worth Rs 128 crore of Vedanta Aluminium ltd (VAl) and questioned the morality of the State Government over the recent hike in power tariff.
"At a time when you Mr Chief Minister is waiving crores of rupees as electricity duty of various companies as reported in the CAG findings in 2012 then on what morality you hiked the power tariff imposing a burden on the poor people and the farmers," asked Mohapatra at a press conference here. He alleged that the Government in connivance with the Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC) has decided to increase the power tariff.
"The OERC, in fact, had issued a show-cause notice to the Reliance-managed Southco, Wesco and Nesco in 2005 and 2011 expressing displeasure with their performance. But they were allowed to function in the State," said Mohapatra, asking who put pressure on the OERC to allow them to run the business.
Demanding immediate withdrawal of the tariff hike, Mohapatra said the reason shown by the OERC for the hike is a farce. "The OERC has maintained that the principal reason for tariff hike in 2015-16 is due to the pass-through of Rs 740.72 crore towards past power purchase dues of the NTPC by the Gridco as per the CERC order. Why the Government is not recovering crores of rupees pending with various private companies," questioned Mohapatra.
He also reiterated his party's demand for a CAG audit of the three discoms, whose licences have been cancelled, and the Government-managed Cesu. Mohapatra also came down heavily on the Chief Minister for asking Central PSUs to fund the State Government's Aahar scheme.
Stating that the PSUs are not working to fulfil Naveen Patnaik's election agenda, he asked the Chief Minister why he did not make a Budgetary allocation for the Aahar scheme. He informed that the SAIl has partially agreed to invest Rs 200 crore for the setting up of a medical college in Rourkela under its CSR activities. He also informed that his party would support the hartal call given by the Rajya Bidyut Upobhakata Mahasangha on March 31.