Communist Party of India (Marxist) State secretary B.V. Raghavulu has appealed to the Opposition parties to join hands to launch an agitation against the increased power tariff and save the people.
“We will chase the government until the hiked power charges are rolled back. The government should either withdraw the revised power tariff or step down.
The CPI (M) will rope in all parties, including the trade unions and associations into the agitation”, said Mr. Raghavulu.
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Addressing the newsmen here on Sunday, he said on the pretext of telescopic system the Congress government was planning towithdraw Rs.1.45 per unit system completely and collect Rs.2.60 as the least tariff per unit. The CPI(M) will not accept the hike in power charges, which impose Rs.6,500 crore on consumers. The party would launch State-wide protests on April 1, and organise a bandh on April 9, he said.
Alleging that the government wrote letters to A.P. Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC) and mounted pressure to increase power charges, Mr. Raghavulu dared Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy to make the letters written to APERC public.
The CPI (M) leader said the Congress government was in minority and was continuing only due to the differences in Opposition parties. “However, we met all the parties including TDP, BJP, MIM and other parties to save the people from the electric shock,” he said.
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Party State secretariat member Y. Venkateswara Rao, city unit secretary Ch. Babu Rao and others were present in the media conference.