Opposition parties on Friday demanded immediate withdrawal of hike in power charges. Three separate dharna programmes were organised in various places in the city to oppose the hike.
Hitting out at the State government for increasing the power tariff, they organised demonstrations, sit in protests, and laid siege to Transco and Discom offices in the district. The Opposition parties vowed to agitate until the hike was withdrawn.
The TDP staged a dharna at Nallakunta Sub Station in Gollapudi near here, while the CPI(M) and YSR Congress parties staged sit-in protests in front of the Sub Collector's office, and Transco SE offices respectively.
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The hike would put a burden between Rs. 600 crore and Rs. 1,000 crore on all categories of consumers. In the name of service charges and fuel adjustment surcharge, the Discoms were allowed to impose an additional burden of Rs.1,500 crore on all categories of power consumers, they said.
The domestic consumers, who use more than 300 units would have to cough up more. This would badly affect the middle class, they said.
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TDP leader and Mylavaram MLA Devineni Uma Maheswara Rao said the hike reflected the inefficiency of the State Government. The TDP would agitate until the Government withdrew the hike, he said.
CPI(M) city secretary R. Raghu and State Committee member Ch. Babu Rao said the Congress during elections announced that it would not hike the power tariff as long as it was in power.
It had also forgotten its agitation against power tariff hike during the TDP rule, Mr. Umamaheswara Rao said. The hike did not exclude local body institutions also which were facing financial crisis, they said.
YSR Congress party leaders Jaleel Khan, P. Gowtham Reddy and others said the Government was burdening the people on one pretext or the other. It was property tax hike couple of weeks ago, and now, the power tariff hike, which was against the Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy's policies.