Withdraw Hike In Power Tariff: Telangana Congress

Deputy CLP leader in the Telangana Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir strongly condemned the hike in power tariff in Telangana.

Addressing a press conference at the Congress Legislature Party office on Saturday, Shabbir Ali said that the power hike was announced while the Appropriation Bill was being debated in the Legislative Council on Friday.

As predicted by the Congress after the presentation of the Rs 1.15 lakh crore budget for 2015-16, the state government had begun imposing a burden of more than Rs 20,000 crores on th people.

The additional burden of Rs 816 crores through a hike in the power tariff was just the beginning, and the people should be prepared to face similar hikes in various sectors in the next two months.

Shabbir Ali said that the hike in power tariff could not be justified. It would not only affect the common man, but also slow down the industrial process. Industries would move to other states if the Telangana government failed to offer them a competitive price. Instead of giving them more incentives, the TRS government was acrually scaring away industries by effecting power hikes. He said that the hike in industrial tariff would consequently lead to a rise in unemployment.

During its 10-year rule during 2004-13, the then Congress Government had increased the power tariff only once, during the regime of Kiran Kumar Reddy, he noted. While maintaining a balanced tariff, the Congress took measures to boost generation and started several power projects. He said that Telangana is likely to get nearly Rs 2,800 MW of power this year only due to the initiatives taken by previous Congress government.

He said that instead of ensuring the proper maintenance of the infrastructure created by the previous government and taking measures to upgrade the same, the TRS government was finding new ways and means to burden the common people.

Shabbir Ali demanded that the State Government absorb the hike by giving a subsidy of Rs 816 crores. He said that giving an additional power subsidy should not be a problem for the TRS government, as Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao himself had claimed that Telangana was a rich and revenue-surplus state.

He also informed that the Congress would come up with a decision on the future course of action on the power tariff hike on Sunday. (INN)