In a bid to make inroads in Telangana, the saffron party is trying to raise issues pertaining to the daily life of common people.
The Telanagana police have kept several BJP leaders under house arrest including former state president K Laxman, party MLC Ramchandra Rao, MLA Raja Singh, MP Arvind Kumar and more than 150 party leaders and activists in Rajanna Siricilla district.
Further, the police have all geared up to arrest BJP state president Bandi Sanjay to foil his bid to ghereo the Viduth Souda (DISCOM) office in Khairabad. Police have been beefed up outside the BJP office to stop Bandi Sanjay from going to the party office in Nampally and disperse the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers from protesting against the recent hike in electricity tariff by the Chief Minister K Chandrasekara Rao-led government in Telanagana.
Bandi Sanjay on Monday accused the Telangana government of looting public by charging an exorbitant price for electricity. It also accused the power generation company of not following the guidelines and regulations of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission. The saffron party has said that the tariff of the electricity (per unit) should be at par with other states of the country.
“We are protesting in a peaceful manner. This government is acting in an autocratic manner to stop us from taking up peoples issues. This is undemocratic. People are suffering due to the lockdown. In this hour hour of crisis, the government is imposing exorbitant power Bill’s. This is looting,” he said.
“Electricity is an essential commodity and government should bring more regulatory measures to control the price. We demand that the government waive off the exorbitant power bills of the consumers who have lost their livelihood due to the corona imposed lockdown. The government is breaking the back of the consumers by fleecing them with exorbitant power bills. We will not give up this protest unless the government waives off the power bills for the last three months, K Laxman who was kept under house arrest by the police at his Ashok Nagar residence noted.
“I have been put under preventive arrest by police at my residence while on the way to @BJP4Telangana state office. I strongly condemn the dictatorial attitude of KCR Govt. @JPNadda, @AmitShah, @blsanthosh, @ narendramodi,” Laxman tweeted. Electricity bills for the lockdown period which are now being distributed to the domestic consumers have shocked many consumers across the state. Power bills in Telangana skyrocketed as the authorities were taking three months’ meter reading in one go, pushing the consumers to a higher traffic bracket. The slab rate for many consumers has increased from LT 1 (A) — up to 100-units a month — to LT 1 (B) (II), in which consumption is over 200 units. The charges are almost doubled, even tripled in some cases.
“After suffering wage losses, salary cuts and increase in essential commodities rates during and after the lockdown due to coronavirus pandemic, the poor and middle-class households are being burdened with exorbitant electricity bills. To top it, this government is trying to stop us from expressing our solidarity to the people by arresting our leaders and keep us in house arrest. This is undemocratic especially when the protest is being carried out in a peaceful manner,” said Raja Singh. However, energy minister Jagadish Reddy denied there were no errors in billing. The bill is more because the consumption was more. With the increase in consumption, the slab rate of consumers has also increased. In fact, it happens every year during the summer, he argued. Further, he said the consumers can pay the power Bill’s in three installments. “Consumers can pay in three month installments, 40 per cent as first installment, 30 per cent each in second and third installments,” Jagadish Reddy noted. While admitting that there was some inflation in power bills as people consumed more power by staying indoors in this summer owing to the lockdown, he said that electricity consumption in the state has gone up by 10-15% this summer compared to previous years.
However, the BJP leaders lashed out at the government saying it was looting the consumers and demanded that the government waive off the power Bill’s for the last three months failing which they warned that they will continue state-wide protests.
