UTTAR PRADESH

CPI(M) Condemns Back-Breaking Power Tariff Hike

SEVERELY condemning the steep hikes in power tariff by the State Electricity Regulatory Commission at the behest of the BSF-BJP coalition government, the Uttar Pradesh state secretariat of the CPI(M) has demanded their immediate withdrawal.

According to the CPI(M) statement issued from Lucknow on October 25, instead of giving any relief to the drought-hit peasantry, the 16 per cent hike in power tariff will only add to their problems. In addition, the tariff has been hike by 15 per cent to 100 per cent for domestic consumers also. The CPI(M) statement sarcastically said the coalition government had perhaps no better gift for the people of Uttar Pradesh on the occasion of Diwali. On the other hand, the tariff has been only nominally hiked for big industrialists. It appears that the power theft by these big industrialists is being subsidised by extracting more from common domestic consumers and agriculturalists. Not only that, the supply of power has been reduced to 6 or 7 hours a day and even less in many areas.

According to the CPI(M), all these facts demonstrate how the coalition government is acting at the behest of and in the interest of big capitalists and multinational companies. This do-nothing government has not spared the electricity employees either; the tariff for them has been hike by 140 per cent.

The CPI(M) state secretariat has appealed to all units of the party in the state to organise an agitation against this back-breaking power tariff hike and extended a warning to the Mayawati government to either withdraw the hike or be ready to face the wrath of the people. (INN)