Power tariff hike in Uttar Pradesh is anti-people: Mayawati

Lucknow: BSP supremo Mayawati on Monday criticised the power tariff hike in Uttar Pradesh and said it highlights the Samajwadi Party government’s “insensitiveness” towards common people. [caption id=“attachment_2306470” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] BSP chief and former UP CM Mayawati. Reuters[/caption] “It was due to failure of the SP government that consumers would be forced to pay heavy price for consuming electricity,” she said and demanded immediate rollback of the hike. Uttar Pradesh State Electricity Regulatory Commission (UPSERC) had increased power tariff for all categories of consumers by 5.47 percent on 18 June. Mayawati said that while there was acute shortage of power in the state, more problem was being created for the consumers by effecting a hefty hike in power tariff. “The power hike for domestic consumers was anti-people,” she said. Crores of urban consumers were already facing serious problem of erratic power supply and damaged transformers due to which there were reports of dharna, demonstration and gherao of sub-stations and people have to face police lathis, she claimed. The BSP supremo said that giving a shock to consumers in such a situation highlights “insensitiveness of the SP government.” In its election manifesto, the SP had promised 20 hours of power supply in rural areas and 22 hours supply in urban areas within two years. But even after three years, the SP government has not only failed on its promises, but it has not taken any concrete step to fulfill them, she said. Mayawati accused the SP government of trying to gain cheap publicity by completing works done by BSP regime on power front. Without strengthening the system, creating financial burden on the consumers was unjust, she added. PTI