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Bengal to move court against ERC's new power tariff

Malda Dec. 29. The West Bengal Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, today said his Government would move the court to challenge the State Electricity Regulatory Commission (WBERC) order to fix a new power tariff eliminating cross-subsidy as it would hit the common man hard.

``We will move either the Supreme Court or the high court against the commission's order. There should be change in the relevant Central laws dealing with cross-subsidy in power tariff,'' Mr. Bhattacharjee said at a public meeting held on the occasion of the 20th conference of the West Bengal State Electricity Board Workmen Union here.

Asserting that the Left Front Government's policy was to provide power to the people at a cheap rate, he said, ``we will not change our policy under any circumstances.'' He claimed that West Bengal was the only State which provided power to the poor at a cheap rate.

The WBERC, a quasi-judicial independent body, had fixed the new tariff eliminating cross-subsidy leading to an over 140 per cent hike at the lowest end with uniform rates for domestic and commercial subscribers recently and said it had been done as per the Supreme Court guidelines.

Acknowledging that power connection could not be made in many villages in the State, Mr. Bhattacharjee said money was needed to set up more transformers and power sub-stations.

``Besides, the demand for power has been on the rise on the industrial front as more investors are starting ventures in the State. For example, more plastic and chemical units are coming up in Haldia and they obviously need adequate power. This shows the need to enhance power generation,'' he said and sought the cooperation of the WBSEB employees in this regard. On power theft, the Chief Minister said there were reports that some big factories were "stealing" power and the Government was looking into it.

PTI

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