Activists of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) staged a dharna in front of AP Transco Superintending Engineer’s office here to protest against the hike in power charges and fuel surcharge.
Addressing the gathering on Monday, BJP city president M.V. Rama Subbaiah said that the government has imposed a burden of Rs. 1.47 per unit by levying fuel surcharge adjustment.
The government has also plans to collect another 82 paise per unit from January onwards. Despite, the government was unable to provide quality power and meet the power requirements.
The people were facing hardships due to power cuts. Over and above, the surcharges etc were breaking the back of the common man, he said.
BJP official spokesperson U. Srinivasa Raju said that the government has vision and proper power policy.
It purchased the power from private companies and neighbouring states at higher rates.
And it was burdening the people under the garb of fuel surcharge adjustment for the years 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12.
The government purchased the imported coal at exorbitant prices.
As many as 6,000 villages would face acute drinking water crisis if the power cuts continued, he said.
BJP city general secretary Dasam Umamaheswara Raju said that the industrial production has come down by 70 per cent, and lakhs of people were rendered jobless. The industrialists fear that the three-day power would be increased to four days. The industries would close down and unemployment increases if the government implemented such proposal, he felt, and demanded the government to take necessary steps to resolve the power crisis.
