The Communist Party of India (Marxist) city unit will launch a massive power agitation shortly.
Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, party city secretary Ch. Babu Rao said that the party, as part of the agitation, will take up a series of protests at local level and city level to mount pressure on the Government to review its policies and withdraw the fuel surcharge adjustment and roll back the hike in power tariff.
The CPI (M) would lay siege to sub stations and take up a signature campaign also. The agitations would be decentralised to motivate the people and create awareness among them. The agitations at the city level would be intensive in nature, if the Government did not respond positively, he said.
The Government was painting a gloomy picture of power generation costs. It was taking shelter under rise in coal costs. The Government’s pleas were baseless. The production cost per unit in Government-owned companies, Genco and NTPS, was far less compared to private companies. The Genco was producing power with a cost of 22 paise per unit (Hydel), while NTPS production cost per unit was Rs.1.66 to Rs. 1.72 per unit (thermal).
The private companies like Lanco, GMR and Gautami were charging Rs. 5.75 to Rs. 8.75 per unit. Only to fill the pockets of these companies, the government was projecting false production costs.