Rollback Power Surcharge And RTC Fare Hike: YSRCP

The YSR Congress Party has demanded immediate rollback of power surcharge, besides stalling the hike in RTC bus fare.

“The decision of the State to collect surcharge on power bills with retrospective effect to net Rs 9,670 crores and the proposal to hike RTC fare to amass Rs 5,600 crores is totally anti-people and will further burden the common man. We demand the government to immediately reverse these decisions,” party spokesperson Gattu Ramachandra Rao told reporters here on Sunday.

He said that the manner in which the surcharge on power bills was taken immediately after the House was adjourned was a mockery of democracy. He alleged that Kiran Kumar Reddy Government was more interested in safeguarding its survival and to please the High Command leaving people’s problems in the lurch. When the main Opposition Party is weak or indifferent, for its personal reasons, the State Government tends to toe the dictatorial path, but YSRCP will question all the anti-people decisions, he said adding that the prices of groundnut have increased by 20 per cent from kharif to rabi, which should also be rolled back.

The decision to collect surcharge on power with retrospective effect is not acceptable as it will affect all sections of the society and the State has shown its double standards by taxing the common man and favouring a select few in power bills, he said adding that YSR governance had been the other way round and was always pro-people.

The proposal to hike RTC fare, collecting VAT on the increased diesel prices, increase in prices of seeds will have a cascading effect on the livelihood of all sections. The contention of the State that the proposal to hike RTC fare is only due to the hike in diesel prices is faulty as the Government can forego the VAT on the increased price and pass it on to the consumers without increasing the bus fare, he said.

When Prime Minster, who is also an economist of repute, while defending the Centre’s FDI policy said that money does not grow on trees, the same argument applies to common man, who should be spared from being burdened too often, he said.

The Assembly was conducted in the most unfair and shabby manner with not a single issue of public interest being taken up for discussion. The issues that were supposed to be discussed on the floor of the House (power surcharge and RTC fare hike) became decisions overnight it was adjourned sine die. “This shows that the Government is not prepared for a debate and will act in a dictatorial manner, but we will prevail and take up all such issues at every available forum,” he said. (INN)