Power tariff: Cong. to urge Governor to convene Assembly session

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, JUNE 2. A Congress delegation will call on the Governor, Dr.C. Rangarajan, on June 6 to press its demand for convening an immediate session of the State Assembly to discuss the ``unprecedented'' hike in power tariff.

The CLP leader,Dr.Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, told presspersons that his party would seek to impress upon the Governor to use his discretionary powers in convening the Assembly as the State Government was not inclined for session now.

Dr. Reddy said the Government had failed to provide quality power at an economic rate, as promised when reforms were launched. With the transmission and distribution losses working out to 33 per cent, the quality of power was affected. The exorbitant power rates belied the other claim of the Government.

The Government was answerable to the people on the huge losses incurred by the APTRANSCO which were equivalent to the State's annual plan outlay. He declined to comment on the letter of the Deputy Speaker of State Assembly Mr.K. Chandrasekhara Rao, to the Chief Minister on the power rates.

A group of Congress MLAs, at a separate press conference, however, hailed the "bold step" taken by the Deputy Speaker highlighting the hardships to be faced by consumers and making out a strong case for withdrawal of the tariff hike. They appealed to TDP and BJP leaders to bring pressure on the Government to roll back the power tariff.

Speaking on behalf of the group, Mr.G. Chinna Reddy, said the tariff hike for the farmers was so high that it would not be possible to carry on agriculture in upland arid areas of Telangana and Rayalaseema regions. It would be better to declare agriculture holiday in the Telangana and Rayalaseema, where agriculture was mainly dependent on borewells, he said.

Of the total 19 lakh agricultural connections in the State, the Telangana region accounted for 12.50 lakh connections and Rayalaseema 3.27 lakh connections. The tariff for agriculture had been increased by 61 per cent.

The Congress MLAs called for a movement above party politics to safeguard the interests of farmers.

Mr.N. Raghuveera Reddy, Mr. Anam Ramnarayan Reddy, Mr. Anam Vivekananda Reddy, Mr.D. Nagender, Mr.N. Kirankumar Reddy, Mr.Y.Sivaram Reddy, Mr. Ratnakar Reddy, Mr.Narayan Reddy participated in the press conference.

Observers for dharna programme

The following are the PCC observers for DCCs for the dharna programme of the Congress against the hike on June 9:

M.M. Pallam Raju (Srikakulam), D.Siva Ramakrishna (Vizianagaram), Satyanarayana Raju (Visakhapatnam), Mohammad Jani (East Godavari), S. Sambayya (West Godavari), P. Lakshmi (Krishna and Vijayawada city), B. Vedavyas (Guntur), A. Chakrapani (Prakasam), K. Lakshminarayana (Nellore), T. Venkatram Reddy (Chittoor), N. Yellaiah (Cuddapah), Mr.P.Veeranna and Gowri Shankar (Anantapur), K. Ram Reddy (Kurnool), Dr.J. Geeta Reddy (Mahabubnagar), V. Rambhupal Chowdary (Hyderabad city), K.R. Amos, Yadaiah Gowd and Bakar Hussain (Ranga Reddy), Quereshi (Medak), Sultan Ahmed and T.Niranjan (Nizamabad), P. Sudhir Kumar (Adilabad), D. Venkatesham and S.R. Mallesh (Karimnagar), M. Kodanda Reddy and K.M. Pratap (Warangal district and city), Laxminarayana Yadav (Khammam) and Rama Brahmam and Manohar Reddy (Nalgonda).

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