The State government has come in for sharp rebukes for the indifferent and erratic manner in which it was resorting to frequent hikes in the electricity charges breaking the back of the poor and the middle-class people who were already neck-deep in a range of problems such as high cost of living, petroleum price increase and so on.
CPI(M) State secretary B.V. Raghavulu addressed a public meeting here on Sunday after leading a rally against the steep hike in the power tariff.
The demonstrations also assumes significance in the context of the Discoms submitting their fresh proposals to the APERC on the power tariff regime for the fiscal 2013-14 and the commission preparing to hold ‘public hearings’ on the proposals in their respective zones.
After hoisting a black flag at the Municipal Corporation junction in the presence of the party cadres, B.V. Raghavulu led the rally to the Ambedkar Statue Circle and addressed the rally going hammer and tongs at the UPA government for its complete insensitivity to the problems of the poor and the working-class even as it was getting mired in a web of scams, which became a big drain on the public exchequer.
Raghavulu charged that the Kiran Kumar Reddy’s government with its latest dose of hike cast a huge financial burden of Rs.33,000 crore on the public and said that the left parties were out to take on the ‘irresponsible government’ on the issue.
The rally was also marked by enactment of skits and satirical shows against what the party cadres dubbed as the corruption-ridden and inept UPA-II. One of the skits symbolically sought to say depict as how even the electricity bills would fatally electrocute the consumers without having to touch a high tension power line. The show was well received.
Among the other district and city party unit leaders, who took part in the rally and the public meeting were district secretary K. Kumar Reddy, K. Murali and others.
