Southern States - Andhra Pradesh

CPI vows to resist power tariff hike

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD Feb. 22. The CPI State Council Secretary, S. Sudhakar Reddy, on Friday cautioned the Government against resorting to power tariff hike and said if it went ahead, the CPI would stiffly resist it, along with other Left parties.

Addressing a press conference, Mr. Reddy said power reforms had become synonymous with World Bank diktats, tariff hikes and plunder of public wealth in collusion with private parties. "It is high time the Government realised that the people are not going to meekly accept anything and everything.''

He wanted the AP Electricity Regulatory Commission to reject the AP TRANSCO's proposals for tariff hike and charged the Government and the TRANSCO with using all kinds of subterfuge to mislead and deceive the public to justify the hike. While ruling out such a hike before the Municipal elections, proposals for the same were being sent now.

Mr. Reddy said both the Government and the AP TRANSCO were turning a blind eye to the machinations of private power units and succumbing to the pressure to raise the unit cost of power purchased from them. Or was there an unwritten understanding between the Government and the private power units ``to loot the exchequer," he asked and demanded that the Power Purchase Agreements be reopened and renegotiated and gas allocation to IPPs be rectified.

On the State Budget, he said there was no mention of tackling the regional imbalances and completion of pending irrigation projects. Referring to the farmers' agitation in Anantapur, he demanded an all-party meeting to discuss the issue and sanction of Rs. One-lakh ex gratia to the dependents of farmers who have committed suicide, waiver of interest on crop loans and exemption from power tariff hike. The party would support the bandh in the district on February 25.

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