The Communist Party of India (Marxist) will haul up the State government on the issue of power cuts in the next Indiramma Baata programme, said State Secretary B.V. Raghavulu.
Mr. Raghavulu, who was in the city, participated in a dharna against power cut in front of the APSPDCL superintending engineer’s office here on Friday. The activists also highlighted the loss of employment caused to the poor because of the power cut demanding the lifting of cuts and reduction of power tariff.
Addressing the activists Mr. Raghavulu said that it was ridiculous for Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy to say that Reliance Company was buying gas from the Krishna-Godavari Basin for lesser amount, because he was part of the Government when the contract was signed with Reliance.
He said from the time of N. Chandrababu Naidu till Mr. Kiran Kumar Reddy the Government had been promoting private companies excessively to increase power production. For this very purpose the electricity department has been broken into pieces.
The GENCO said that it would set up the power generation plants required if the State Government gave just Rs.13,000 crore, but the State Government has yet to give a single rupee, Mr. Raghavulu said. The State Government was due to GENCO Rs.5,000 crore, but the State Government has not given a single rupee to it, he said.
The State Government was planning to put a burden of Rs.7,000 crore on consumers. It had completely failed to meet the raising demand for power, Mr.Raghavulu pointed out. And as a result the people were being put to tremendous inconvenience now, he said. District Secretary V. Umamaheswara Rao, state executive committee member Ch. Babu Rao and other participated in the dharna demanding reduction of power tariff and lifting of power cut.
