After the newly-appointed Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi announced 50 per cent subsidy on power bills, residents along with the Gurgaon Citizens’ Council (GCC), a civil society body, have launched a door-to-door campaign to create awareness on “unjustified” hike in power tariff by the Haryana Government over the past one year and demanded its roll back.
Kicking off the campaign at Sadar Bazar here a few days ago, the GCC members distributed pamphlets among the shopkeepers and local residents for more than three hours creating awareness on how the Haryana Government had increased the power tariff unreasonably over the past one year and was over-charging the consumers.
Door-to-door campaign“As part of our door-to-door campaign, we would distribute leaflets among the local residents to create awareness on the unjustified power tariff and appeal them to unite against it,” said GCC president R.S. Rathee, adding, “the Haryana Government has hiked the power tariff by Rs.2.40 during the past one year and Fuel Surcharge Adjustment (FSA) is being wrongly charged from consumers for coal import. No other State is charging FSA. Moreover, the power tariff in Haryana is very high compared to other States with a minimum of Rs.6 for 100 units and Rs.7.37 for 500 units.”
Mr. Rathee alleged that the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) had miserably failed to plug transmission losses and the consumers were being burdened with additional charges for the discom’s failure. Mr. Rathee said that a signature campaign would be launched next week and the collected signatures would be sent to Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda demanding the roll back.
Soon after the AAP Government announced the power subsidy in Delhi, Haryana Chief Minister had on December 31 announced Rs.200 subsidy per bill to each of about 40 lakh urban and rural domestic consumers consuming less than 1,600 units of electricity bi-monthly in the State with effect from January 1 this year. Making the announcement, Mr. Hooda said that an amount equal to the relief given to the consumers would be paid by the government to the discoms from State budget.
