High tension politics

There appears to be no end in sight to the row over the electricity tariff increase in Andhra Pradesh, writes R. J. RAJENDRA PRASAD. The Congress(I) and the Left parties want a rollback and a referendum while the Government has no such plans.

THE POWER tariff in Andhra Pradesh was increased on June 4, but the debate resulting from the agitation launched by the Congress(I) and the Left parties demanding that the hike be rolled back has become highly contentious and without direction. There is no end in sight. The Andhra Pradesh Congress(I) Committee chief, Mr. M. Sathyanarayana Rao, says he is ready to face ``bullets or police lathis or jail terms'' and that on no account will the Congress(I) withdraw the agitation unless the hike is rolled back or the Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, steps down. The CPI's State secretary, Mr. Suravaram Sudhakara Reddy, says his party's activists will ``haunt Mr. Chandrababu Naidu like a shadow'' wherever he goes. The CPI and the CPI(M) want a referendum on the hike.

The Government has no plan either to roll back or reduce the hike, because any concessions were to have been given before June 4, when the notification on tariffs issued by the Electricity Regulatory Commission came into force. Mr. G. P. Rao, ERC Chairman, was himself gheraoed at Warangal when he went to attend a convention of astrologers and palmists.

The hike is certainly arbitrary and on the high side, and there are a lot of valid questions which are unanswered as yet. Mr. G. P. Rao does not explain the logic behind the steep rise, nor the issues that the senior Congress(I) leaders such as Mr. K. Rosiah raised about determining the ``cost to serve'' at 496 paise per unit for domestic consumers. An NGO, Lok Satta, has asked for guarantees that TRANSCO will indeed work more efficiently in future, check theft of energy and ensure that its costs come down, but none is forthcoming.

All that the Chief Minister is prepared to say is that if efficiency improves and if theft is controlled, probably by next year, there may not be any further hike in power charges. So many ``ifs'' do not inspire confidence.

There is some truth in the Telugu Desam allegation that only Opposition activists are participating in the agitation so far, and there is no sign of the middle class consumer sitting on dharnas. The TRANSCO has about 83 lakh consumers, but of them, about 53 lakh consume less than 50 units a month and are not affected by the tariff hike. The other 28 lakh consumers are in the 51 to 200 units a month bracket, and someone paying Rs. 330 a month earlier will now have to pay Rs. 510 a month. But these consumers seem to have taken the hike in their stride and have stayed away from the agitation.

Mr. Chandrababu Naidu, several Ministers and MLAs have participated in a series of ``Vidyut Sadassus'', conducted in almost every village of the State from June 11 to 18, where they explained that it was no pleasure for the Government to increase tariffs but otherwise TRANSCO would collapse. About 16 lakh domestic consumers stood in queues at these meetings applying for new power connections, because these are not given easily in the normal course.

Telugu Desam leaders point out that no hike has been rolled back, including increases in the price of petrol, fertilizers, kerosene, or rice and that no State has conducted a referendum before imposing taxes. They allege that the Opposition parties have become frustrated, and that the Congress(I) leaders are ``daydreaming'' of coming to power in six months time, though general elections are four years away.

They say the Congress(I)'s daydreams are based on its presumption that about 50 Telugu Desam MLAs, all denied ministerial berths, will cross the floor.

The last time this happened, in 1984, Indira Gandhi was in power in Delhi. Now the Congress(I) itself has declined in stature and the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, is certainly dependent on Mr. Chandrababu Naidu's support.

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Section  : Opinion
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