Three days after the UP state electricity regulatory commission announced the hefty hike in power tariff, the Samawadi party president Akhilesh Yadav has said `` its an act of political dishonesty and immoral conduct of the BJP led state government’’.
The former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav said that the steep hike in the power tariff for the agriculture sector and power consumers in rural areas betrays the hatred of the BJP towards the farmers. He demanded immediate rollback of the hike in power tariff for the farm sector.
Without elaborating SP president said `` the BJP government has destroyed the infrastructure in power structure developed during the previous Samajwadi party regime where over 8,000 MW of fresh power generation capacity was created’’.
He said the power tariff fixed by the power regulator for the unmetered consumers in rural areas is clear evidence that they have been cheated. He said the earlier tariff for the unmetered rural consumers was Rs 50 per kilowatt as fixed charges and Rs 2.20 per unit and now they will pay Rs 80 as fixed charges and Rs 5.50 per unit for the power consumed.
SP leader said the steep hike in power by the BJP government has exposed the double standards of the ruling party. ``The BJP government has ditched the power consumers of the state. During the urban local body elections chief minister Yogi Adityanath assured to provide round the clock power supply and other basic civic amenities and on the other hand they hiked the power tariff immediately after the end of the elections’’.
Suggesting the alternatives to the hike in power tariff, SP president said the government should have taken effective measures to bring down the losses of the power corporation like reducing the line losses and curbing power theft. He said the hike in power tariff for the rural consumers will only aggravate the economic crisis in rural economy as the farmers were still reeling under the twin impact of the demonetization and Goods and services tax.